Flaming Keys One Shots
by sweet little demon
Summary: A series of One shots of Natsu and Lucy, that will probably be extremely long and probably a little rushed, but have good plot (I hope!)!
1. Not Letting Go

Not Letting Go

Lucy let out a groan of annoyance as she dropped her head onto the bar counter. This day was just not going her way at all, or the week really.

"Are you alright Lucy?" a gentle, kind voice asked. The busty blonde lifted her head enough to look at the beautiful white haired waitress, Mirajane.

"I'm fine. Just … stressed, is all." She said, turning her face back onto the countertop. It was true. She was stressed. And she hated it.

They had just returned from Edolas, Lisanna welcomed back home with wide open arms. Now, don't get Lucy wrong, she liked Lisanna, she _loved _her, but the newly found guild member was hogging Natsu's attention. So they hadn't gone out on a job all week, and with her rent coming up soon, that wasn't good.

Lucy glanced over at the table that Natsu, Erza and Lisanna were seated at, taking note of their happy expressions and light airiness around them. Complete opposite of her mood at the moment.

"If you want to go on a job, why not just go ask Natsu? I'm sure he would jump at the idea." Mira added onto their conversation a few seconds later. Lucy flung her head up to stare at the transforming She-Devil with a comically shocked expression.

"How did you …" Lucy trailed off.

"I just do." Mira replied easily with a giggle, setting a glass of water down in front of the shocked summoner.

"Well, they look like they're having a good time, and I don't want to interrupt." Lucy trailed off once more to herself as she picked up the glass, taking a small sip. But one small look at the calendar behind Mirajane had her forcing herself off the stool. She could hear Mira giggle quietly behind her as she dragged herself across the guild hall to the table her friends sat at.

"Hey Lucy!" Lisanna smiled at the approaching blonde with a wave. This drew the attention of the other two mages towards Lucy, both immediately smiling at the celestial wizard—who had just reach the table.

"Hello Lucy. Would you like a slice of my cake?" Erza asked, gesturing at the dessert placed decoratively on the plate.

"No thanks." Lucy smiled with a dismissive wave, a genuine smile growing across her face. Lisanna nudged Natsu off his side bench they both sat on, succeeding at knocking him on the floor in order to give Lucy a place to sit. With a quiet grumble about pushy women, he plopped himself down on the other side of their table, next to Erza.

Lucy giggled and took her seat beside the short haired mage, happy to know that she was still accepted by her friends. She had been worried that once Lisanna was back, she would be ignored, like she had been a replacement of sorts. She should have never doubted her guild. They were family, no matter what. Even though Natsu had been distracted by Lisanna as of late, he never ignored her when she talked to him. In fact, if he saw her first, he'd go up and slap her on the back in greeting … before catching sight of Lisanna and rushing off to talk to her.

"Natsu, I was wondering if we could go on a job soon. I could really use the money." Lucy said to the dragon slayer, leaning her arms on the table comfortably. She learned long ago that telling them her rent was almost due never did anything to force them into action, so she eventually just gave up and just asked for them to go on a job.

Her heart filled with hope when his eyes lit up with that special sparkle that was only saved for the idea of fighting/work. And then realization splashed its way across his face.

"Actually, Lisanna and I were gonna go out on a mission later today. You know? Like the old days, before she disappeared on us." He said, gesturing between the two of them.

"Oh." Lucy mumbled quietly, lowering her eyes, the hope deflating instantly. Natsu continued on, probably either ignoring her reaction, or hadn't noticed it in the first place—most likely the later.

"But we'll definitely go on one when I get back!" he said, pure excitement gleaming in his tone as he raised his arms and waved them around his head comically. "Don't think that just because we've had a few days off means you get to slack off on your part of the team." He added on with a wide grin, looking directly at Lucy with beaming eyes.

A small smile grew on her face. It truly made her happy that he still wanted her as a teammate, even though his old one was finally back after so long. She would have felt a lot more comfortable if they could have gone on a job immediately, but she guessed it wouldn't hurt if she waited a few hours. Knowing Natsu, they'd be back within the next morning, tops if it was a simpler mission.

"Okay. What job did you guys decide to take?" she asked, looking at Lisanna for the answer.

"We're going to go rescue a priceless ring that got stolen from a family by a pack of Morgelurs." She said with a dreamy smile, obviously ecstatic about working again. Lucy panicked a little on the inside. That job lasted at the _least _a week. She had to pay her rent in two days.

Sure, the actual job itself might not take that long, but the distance to travel to and from was a total of two days in itself—that is if Natsu even let's them take the train. Not to mention they would have to track down the pack of vicious beasts, get the ring out safely—something to worry about with Natsu around—and do the paper work of the damages that would more than likely be caused on the town.

Even if they finished the job the very second they got there, it wouldn't be enough time. But Lucy didn't say anything. They were both obviously excited about the job and to be hanging out with one another, so Lucy wouldn't be the one to rain on their parade.

They chatted animatedly for about another hour before Natsu, Lisanna and Happy set out on their job, bidding farewell to their fellow Guildmates as they raced down the street.

^v^v^v^v^v^

The next morning, Lucy was yet again at the bar, but this time, her eyes were shifting between the job board and the doors. Should she take a job? She had definitely gotten stronger and could take care of herself just fine, but she wasn't like Erza, Natsu and Gray. She couldn't fight as physically well as them after she ran out of magic power or dropped her keys, pretty much rendering her helpless. Sure, she always had her whip, but it wouldn't do much damage to a ferocious monster. Probably only tick it off. Severely.

But her rent was due tomorrow. The land lady was nice _enough _to hold off her pay if she was on a job, knowing she'd be coming back with money. So, if she took the right job, she could pay her rent and the tax that gets added onto it for the wait, and still be able to buy food for the next week.

She stood from the bar again, determination radiating off of her like heat as she walked over to the board. Her eyes scanned over the options, completely ignoring the S-class missions and the ones that wouldn't have enough money to even buy a loaf of bread. She mainly focused on the prices, not even looking at the job description. She kept feeling a pull towards one of the fliers that was stapled to the corner of the board, but she kept searching, just in case there was another one that might be up her alley in anyway. But no matter what, she seemed to keep finding herself looking at that one flier.

90,000 jewel. It was persuasion in itself. She ripped it from its metal confines with a smile and walked over to Mira.

"Mira, I'd like to take this job, please~" she said, almost singing the words as she slapped the flier down onto the wooden top of the bar.

"A-are you sure, Lucy? Isn't this a little … difficult for you?" Mira asked with uncertainty as she held out the flier for the blonde to see. It gave little detail, but enough to let the mage interested about what they would be dealing with. A few Dark Minions and some strange hound creature—requesting that they be run out of town with the reward of 90,000 jewel.

Lucy had to admit, it was definitely something that she wouldn't originally do without any help, but she needed that reward. And she knew enough about Dark Minions to be able to scare them off. As for the hound, she'd figure something out once she figured out its weak points. She had been picking up details about how to take down an opponent, thanks to Erza and her training sessions they had been doing lately. Nothing physical quite yet, just training Lucy to heighten her senses so to pick up on hints of what the enemy would do next—offence or defense. Stuff like that. Of course, Natsu and Gray were left out of this little detail, deciding they would end up crashing the sessions to try and take on Erza, or possibly Lucy if they were bored enough.

Anyway …

"Couldn't you way for Natsu to come back? Or maybe bring Erza or Levy with you?" it was obvious that she was worried about Lucy, but at the moment, said spirit wizard didn't really care.

"Erza isn't here to ask, and I'd hate to break up … whatever's going on between her and Gajeel." She waved her hand in the direction of the blue haired book worm who was speaking with the iron dragon slayer. The two of them looked about ready to leap across the table separating them and do the dirty deed itself right there on the guild floor.

"Well, if you're absolutely sure …" Mira signed the job and handed it back to Lucy, a small, supportive smile on her face. "Good luck!"

"Thanks, Mira!" Lucy called over her shoulder as she ran out the doors, a beaming smile on her face. She rarely had a chance to go on solo missions, thanks to her friends catching her as she looked over a job flier or as she was heading out the door. She knew it wasn't that they didn't trust her abilities, it was just a part of being in Fairy Tail; they're all naturally protective of their members, and will always have one another's backs.

And now, was her chance to prove that she was worthy of being a part of the strongest team in Fairy Tail. Seriously. Next to erza, Natsu and Gray, she was as powerful as a rock made of plastic … not even capable of causing the enemy to flinch.

Gray! She totally forgot about her remaining teammate. She hadn't seen him at the guild, same with Erza (who was currently on a personal mission of revenge for the murder of an innocent slice of cake), and was now cautious of running into him in town. If he did catch her and figured out she was on her way to a job, he would for sure tag along.

She didn't mind his company, or anything like that, since it was usually full of comfortable silence—which then would turn awkward because his clothes would somehow magically disappear. But it was a rare occasion she got on a mission alone with anyone without Natsu, since he insisted on going with whenever Lucy tried to leave town—mission or not.

After a quick stop at her apartment to pack a quick bag of the necessities for travel, she made her way towards the train station, keeping a wary eye open for the dark haired ice mage. She ran different excuses of why she was heading the way she was through her head in case she happened to stumble across Gray, drifting in and out focus as she walked. It was around midday, so the streets and walk ways were rather busy and crowded. Which meant that she got knocked around a good amount by people passing the opposite direction as her. Though her shoulders were probably going to become purple with bruises, it at least knocked her out of her dazed state so she could focus on getting to the station mostly undamaged and on time. Tugging her bag high up her shoulder with a determined "hmph", she marched faster towards the station.

After she paid for her ticket, she sat down in one of the waiting chairs, looking over the flier. If things went according to plan, she should be back before Natsu and Lisanna finish with theirs. She had to wonder what mission Natsu and herself would go on after all this passes. Most likely something pretty simple that would turn into something life threatening, which would involve destroying half whatever town they were at and not get paid. Even though it did get annoying at times, she wouldn't change it for the world.

According to the job description, it shouldn't take more than two to three days to finish the job, and the ride was only two hours away by train. She also liked how they would be paying for her stay at the local hotel, which was nice since she didn't have any money to spare anyway. If they hadn't offered, she'd most likely have camped out under the stars.

Before Fairy Tail came along, she never would have done something like that. But traveling with Natsu, Gray, Erza and Happy, she learned to love sleeping outside. She got to look at the constellations and study them more thoroughly, even though she already knew them all. She _was _a celestial wizard after all. She knew every single constellation and it was one of the things she was the most proud of, aside of having almost all the zodiac keys and being in Fairy Tail.

Her head jerked up in surprise when a nearby train whistled, again knocking her out of her thoughtful trance. She looked at the service board and saw that her train would be arriving any second now, so she grabbed her bag handle and heaved it over her shoulder once again, rising to her feet.

Shifting from foot to foot, she started down the train tunnel, waiting for the familiar beams of the train headlights. She stepped aside when a group of people passed by her, nearly trampling over her in the process. She struggled to keep steady, flailing her arms around frantically to keep herself from stumbling to the ground. And that's when she saw him.

Gray.

Well, the back of his head anyway. And there was no doubt in her mind that it was him, since he was lacking every other item of clothing other than his boxers. He stood a few yards away, holding a bag loosely in his hand as he stared at the service board. She held in an 'eep' at the sight of him and hunched down, managing to hide behind a rather large man sitting on a bench.

She assumed he was heading out on a mission, but for all she knows, Mira might have sent him after her and now he was on her trail. Deciding that she liked the idea of the first more, she managed to squeeze her way into a crowd of people that were heading for her train—that had finally arrived. Unfortunately, they had to pass directly by Gray to get to the door, so she was praying to Mavis that she didn't get caught.

Huddling over slightly with her bag pressed over her head to hide her vibrant blonde hair, she held her breath as she passed by the ice mage with only a few feet. He didn't seem to acknowledge them, thankfully, so she was able to hand the ticket to the conductor and pass onto the train with no problem. Though she did get a few strange looks from the people around her as she continued to keep her bag pressed around her head—just in case he happened to spot her as she passed by one of the windows.

She sat down on one of the lone benches, setting her bag at her feet with a sigh of relief. She had made it without any real difficulty, so that was good.

Turning to face the windows, watching as they set into motion a few moments later, she let a smile creep across her face. Her first solo mission. She had to admit, she was really excited. It was time that she got to show the world just how strong she was. The Magic Games and the exam had done nothing but show how easily she was defeated. Even though Raven Tail had cheated and Minerva had played dirty, she had still lost so easily. She had done barely anything during that time period, and she knew she had to redeem herself. She had to prove she was worthy of being in Team Natsu.

^v^v^v^v^v^

About two hours later, she stepped off the train onto a lonely, desolate looking station with no one around. It kind of gave her the chills, but she shook those off and marched on. She jumped right over the few rotting wooden steps that lead to the dirt path, landing with as much grace as a one-winged duck. Thankful that no one saw her little trip up, she continued on her way down the lone dirt path that led to the town of Wakaba. She didn't entirely understand why the train station was so out of the way, a good ten minute walk through a forest just to reach the edges of the town. And aside from completely vacant streets and sidewalks, it was a beautiful little town that had a rather alluring aura about it.

Though it was beautiful and she felt her muscles slightly relax just from stepping on the cobblestone road, it was still a little … creepy. It appeared that there was absolutely no one living in this town, but she could see them peeking their doors and windows open to see the new arrival. Slowly, the peaceful feeling she had picked up on was replaced with a self-conscious, nerve-racking, paranoid feeling. She instinctively sat her hand over her hip, right where she held her keys. She fingered Loke's absentmindedly, almost feeling the urge to summon him just to have someone else around. But she knew better than to do that—since she wanted to save up as much of her magical energy as she could.

She eventually stumbled across the Mayor's office, a tall building that was mostly made up of many flights of stairs with one room sitting on the fourth floor and a bathroom tucked in the corner. Thank Mavis she was in good shape, since she didn't want to be all out of breath and disheveled when she confronted the man that had requested their aid. She knocked lightly on the threshold of the door.

"Hello? I'm a member of Fairy Tail; Lucy. I'm here to help you with your problem." She called through the door, waiting patiently for a response. Instead of a vocal reply for her to enter, like she expected, the door was thrown open and she was yanked right off her feet into the room. She let out a slightly startled squeak as she attempted to compose and right herself before she face-planted on the wooden floors—which was a wasted effort.

She pushed herself up so she wasn't lying flat on her face, brushed off the front of her shirt and tugged the helm of her skirt a little lower—it having ridden up with her tumble. Lucy glanced up at the man that had thrown her inside the room, who was looking slightly panicked and apologetic as he stumbled in a circle around her.

She cleared her throat as she stood to her feet, a kind smile immediately sprouting across her face as she held her hand out to the man.

"Let's, uh, try that again. My name is Lucy of Fairy Tail, and I'm here to help you with the request you sent in." she lifted the flier with her other hand to show her authenticity.

"Yes, yes. Thank you so much for coming Ms. Lucy. We were alerted of your arrival immediately and everything is prepared for your stay. I am Mayor Wilson, but feel free to call me Willy—that's what everyone around here does." She felt slightly sorry for the obviously nervous man, who was sweating bowling balls and slightly rambling. He was a rather short man, chestnut brown hair parted strictly down the middle of his head and big bushy eyebrows that pretty much covered his pale grey eyes. In a way, he reminded her of Everlue, minus the nose-hair-mustache.

"It was no problem at all Mr. Wilson. I'm happy to help. Now, I think we both want this to be started as soon as possible, so why don't you fill me in on what's been going on around here." Lucy said, mentally patting herself on her back for sounding so professional.

"Yes, yes. Indeed. Please. Sit." He gestured to one of the two chairs sitting in front of his desk, hobbling himself across the floor. It appeared that he had stepped on something to reach his chair's height, but Lucy decided to keep her comments to herself out of respect. They _were _supplying her a place to stay. And judging by the way that people were avoiding leaving their homes like the plague, it was a good thing. When she sat down, she was slightly startled when she dropped a little lower than she expected, bouncing rather loudly on the cushion.

"In your description, you said that you're town was overrun with Dark Minions and some strange hound thing, right?" she asked as she pulled the flier out yet again to look it over.

"Yes, yes. A few months back, people had been disappearing out of their homes and off the streets at night, so we sent a search party into the woods. Only two of them made it back. One was in absolute hysterics, mumbling about beady black skin and shinning white eyes that never blinked. And the other one was just deathly silent. He still hasn't said a word to this day. In fact, I haven't seen the man for quite some time, since he never leaves his home."

"Do you have a better description of what they saw? Maybe I could talk to the man that had been mumbling to himself." Lucy offered, trying her best to look like she knew exactly what she was doing. In all honesty, she was rather nervous now.

"Yes, yes. That would be a good idea, if he was still around. He had gone and jumped out of his apartment window and ran into the woods. We haven't seen or heard from him since. But I do have a more detailed description, yes, yes." Lucy watched as he stood up—and again, dipped lower as if stepping off of something—and walked towards a small bookcase pressed against one of the walls. He pulled out one of the books and brought it over to the desk, not even bothering to sit down again as he opened it to a specific page and laid it in front of the celestial mage.

"This entire book is filled with villagers descriptions and drawings of what they believe they saw, yes, yes. Putting everything together, we managed to discover what the black skinned and white eyed creatures were, but we haven't found out what the hound beast was."

Lucy silently agreed by nodding her head, looking at the rather detailed drawing—that could possibly rival Reedus' artwork—of a small, black skinned, pointy toothed and eared, clawed hands and feet, white eyed monster that looked kind of like a gremlin. It was definitely a Dark Minion.

Lucy flipped the page, her brow furrowing as she looked over another sketch, this time of what did appear to be a monstrous hound. But it wasn't very detail and just looked like a red eyed Great Dane.

"No one has actually seen the hound up close and lived to give us any detail. All we know is that it only attacked from sunset to sunrise. Yes, yes, no one's seen it during the day; that's when the Dark Minions come and ransack our town for food. Thankfully no one has been taken for the past couple weeks. We've managed to satisfy the creatures' hungers with our own food, leaving it just outside of town."

Lucy was in complete and utter shock.

"Why haven't you sent out for help sooner? This is terrible!" she cried in exasperation, throwing her arms above her head to show just how complete stunned she was.

"Yes, yes, our connections to any outside towns have been nearly nonexistent. Everyone is too scared to go anywhere near the woods to go and mail the request. But recently, a man passed through and we offered him a place to stay if he would go and give our request to anyone that could help." The man sighed, dropping his head onto the top of his desk with a groan.

"Not to worry, Mr. Wilson. I will do everything in my power to help your town." Lucy said with a confident smile, standing from her seat. "Do you mind if I take this book with me? I'd like to look it over a little and see if maybe I can have one of my friends find anything on the hound."

"Yes, yes, take it. I'll personally show you to your hotel room."

^v^v^v^v^v^

The room was quaint and small, but big enough for her to live in. A tiny fridge that was stocked full with all sorts of foods, a one person bed, a dresser and a window … with bars and cross-wired screening. Obviously they wanted the person that was going to help save them to be safe. Deciding it'd be best if she started immediately; she grabbed an apple from the fridge and sat on the bed, opening the book to the picture with the best looking hound drawing. Pulling out her keys from their small little bag, she summoned Crux silently without using her call.

"Do you think you could find anything on this beast? I'd would like to know what I've just got myself into." She asked with a smile, holding the book up for the ancient looking cross to see. He squinted at the picture, nodded a few times … and then nodded off, his signature snot bubble blowing from his nose.

And while he was doing that, she decided that she'd stock up on her magical power while she could. Crossing her legs lotus style, she held her knees as she closed her eyes and look slow deep breaths. She had learned that meditation really did help strengthen her magic power. Even though she could summon two spirits at once, she couldn't really hold them for all that long—not nearly long enough for an actual battle where her life could be on the line. So day by day she had grown stronger. She was proud to state that she could summon three spirits at once now and still have left over energy to summon another for a short amount of time.

She hadn't really told or shown the others of her grown strengths yet, wanting to surprise them in a battle that she could finally have the upper hand in. And thinking about this brought her attention to her team. She wondered if Gray got to do what he wanted when she saw him in the train station, and that Erza was having luck with whatever she had been doing, and Natsu … she hoped that their traveling was going well. They probably hadn't reached the city the mission was taking place at yet, since she was positive that they had gone on foot for Natsu's stomach sake. Really, the only person who could persuade Natsu onto a vehicle was Erza, and sometime Lucy when she offered to buy dinner or even hesitantly let them crash at her apartment when the mission was over. No one else stood a chance at getting the stubborn pink-haired boy on any sort of auto-mobile.

"Hmmm, Ms. Lucy? I've found something."

Lucy snapped out of her meditative trance and looked up at the spirit she had briefly forgotten she had summoned.

"Oh, good! What did you find?" Lucy asked gleefully, leaning forward on her elbows while remaining cross-legged.

"I'm afraid I could not find very much, but what I had is at the least of some use. A very powerful beast, it truly is, and a rare one at that. **(A.N. Don't bother looking up any of these names. I'm just coming up with them on the spot.) **A Heveron. A demonic beast that will rise out of the bowls of hell and devour whatever civilization is nearby—slowly to gain back its strength. I also know that if it gains back its entire strength, it will be near to impossible to stop it. That is all I know."

It wasn't really what she had been hoping for, but it was better than going in completely blind.

"Thank you, Crux. You can return now."

She had been hoping that she could learn more about its abilities and its weaknesses, not so much about its history. But at least she knew what it was … a monster straight out of hell. Now she was regretting not listening to Mira and taking someone with. She was a little over her head with the hound. But at least she could be of service with the Dark Minions. She knew exactly how to deal with those.

Glancing at her barred window, she was shocked to see that the sun was actually setting already. She guessed she had actually been meditating for far longer than she thought she had—and Crux must have had to search extremely hard for it to have taken so long to find that little of information. Lucy had hoped she'd have more time to prepare, but she had a feeling that the sooner she approached this, the better. Besides, her power was most likely at its full max—judging by the way her skin had a slightly more prominent glow to it than normal and she was slightly jittery, full of boundless energy.

Actually, for the first night, she planned on rooting herself up in a tree and play look out, see if she can actually spot the beast first. And if she did, she'd stalk it from afar and watch it, wait for a possible opening to attack—or better yet, learn what could bring it down. While she sat at one side of the town, she would have Virgo keep watch over the other side, and immediately alert her of anything suspicious.

Knowing she'd most likely be camping out for most of the night, she packed a little food in a small bag and placed it in her jacket pocket. She didn't even have to be outside to tell that it would be rather chilly, so she pulled out one of her thicker coats from of her bag. Making sure her keys were secure at her waist, she strutted out of her room and into the chilling evening air. It was getting dark extremely fast, and she'd rather be in the woods and in her tree before everything became pitch black and end up getting lost. So she pushed herself into a fast paced jog, aiming for the more lit up part of the woods that had yet to fall to the falling sun's shadow.

Picking a tree hadn't been hard, but climbing it had been an entirely different story. All the branches were too high for her to jump and grab onto, and the trunks were all too thick to wrap her arms and legs around. Even attempting ended with her hands getting multiple splinters, a good amount of cuts, and landing on the perfectly made sandwich she had in her pocket—which had bummed her out more than not being able to climb the tree. She eventually gave up and summoned Taurus to give her a lift. It used up about .01% of her magic, since the perverted cow hadn't used any of his abilities whatsoever. The little magic she had used was just to get him to and from Earthland.

After she had settled herself comfortably in the fork of the branch, she summoned Virgo. The pink haired maid has asked if it was "time for punishment" which had nearly caused Lucy to fall out of her branch from flailing around screaming that she never considering even the thought of it.

"No, I just would like you to go to the other side of the town. Keep watch over there and tell me immediately if you see anything out of the ordinary, especially Dark Minions and a giant dog monster. Okay?" Lucy had asked as politely and patiently as she could, still flustered about her spirit's peculiar request. You'd think Lucy would be used to it by now, or Virgo would have learned that there was no Punishment Time, but clearly, that hadn't happened.

"Yes, Princess." The spirit bowed and burrowed into the earth, disappearing through a hole that seemed to magically disappear the moment Lucy decided to check on the state of her sandwich—which was still edible, just not as attractive as it had been before she had landed on it.

Lucy looked around at the canopy that surrounded her, waiting for everything to fall into complete darkness. She had been right to wear a warmer jacket, because the moment the sun completely disappeared, the temperature seemed to have dropped at least thirty degrees. She could even see her breath turn to little ice shards after hitting the air. Everything was shroud in darkness, but not enough that Lucy couldn't see anything. But it seemed that all she could really make out were shadows against slightly less darker shadows. So basically in two minutes, she had learned that there were more than sixty shades of grey, or that maybe she had suddenly lost the ability to see color—which she quickly disproved by looking at her jacket, a beautiful plum purple.

Everything _seemed _relatively normal. She heard the usual animal noises, stuff she heard all the time while camping out with Natsu and Happy. She wasn't as jumpy as she had once been—unless it pertained the previously stated Dragon Slayer suddenly barging into her room at completely random and inconvenient times—then she screams and kicked in his general direction out of instinct in hopes of distracting whoever had broken into her house long enough to summon a spirit. Natsu had of course grown used to this 'friendly greeting', as he would call it, and just would grab her ankle before it hit anything vital.

Anyway … somehow her thoughts had gone from the condition of the forest to kicking Natsu in his baby maker. She questioned her mental links sometimes.

Lucy jumped slightly when she heard a crack come from below her, at the bottom of the tree a few yards away from hers. She squinted, trying to see what had caused the noise and saw that a piece of bark had just chipped off. Feeling slightly ridiculous at her paranoia, she had to remind herself that this wasn't some fantasy story she was trying to disprove. She was out here to fend off a bunch of little bastards and one giant deadly bastard, so she really shouldn't shrug too many occurrences off as nothing. Anything out of the normal state could mean something.

So when she heard another crack noise, this time coming from her own tree, she glanced down and saw that an extremely large portion of the bark had been peeled away and was nowhere to be seen. Lucy gulped nervously, her hand gripped her keys firmly in one hand, ready to summon the first key she touched—as long as it wasn't Aquarius, whose key was always at the end so she wouldn't accidentally summon her in a small puddle on a dirty manure coated road again—and her sandwich with the other. Lucy furrowed her brow as she held her breath, listening to the barely audible sounds of something scurrying across the grass. It didn't sound like any kind of animal she knew of, since there were sloppy sounding pants added in. It sounded somewhat like one of those dogs with the squished up face and curly tails that seemed to always be panting and having their tongues out.

She could pin point where the sounds were going to—a tree just across from her—and where the breathing was coming from. Whatever it was, it was small. Though it was hard to tell from being so high up, judging by where each chipping of the trees were—about two feet away from the ground—she assumed that whatever it was would barely reach her knee. But Lucy knew better than to underestimate size—Wendy, Levy and Makarov were proof enough that size didn't matter. She hadn't been able to see whatever it was yet, but she saw that when the bark was ripped away, it was done with inhuman speed and cleanliness. When she didn't hear anything for a couple moments, she began to feel extremely uncomfortable, goose bumps sprouting all over her body—and not from the cold. She listened so intently, she could even hear the sound of a squirrel really far in the distance, it was faint, but she could pick it out easily. So she couldn't understand why she couldn't hear where that panting creature had gone.

Then her branch shook violently, nearly whipping her off in the process. She whipped around with wide eyes, immediately finding the white-eyed figure grinning at her with pointed teeth sitting at the end of her branch. It was about the size of Plue, maybe a little bigger, but at this point, she really didn't give a shit about what it looked like. It had white eyes and was drooling as it looked at her. She let out a rather hoarse scream and chucked her sandwich at it as hard as she could.

Apparently it hadn't been prepared whatsoever for her to actually react, so the sandwich had hit it in the face and knocked it back a few steps, which happened to be the very thin, weak part of the branch, snapping immediately under its weight. Lucy watched in a terrified fascination as it hit the earth with a sickening crunch on his head, its body slumping over and not moving again—the sandwich sitting just a few inches away from it. Lucy was about to leap down and check to see if it was alive, when she heard the panting again.

This time, there was more than just one.

She pulled herself to a higher branch, trying to seclude herself from being seen, but still be able to see. She watched as another one of the creatures—a Dark Minion she easily figured out after her she gained her senses back—emerged from the darkness, scuffling across the ground on his long arms and stubby legs. It crept closer to the body of the one she had unintentionally probably killed, about a dozen other ones following closely behind the new arrival. When the Dark Minions sniffed curiously at her sandwich, she felt a small dose of depression sink in her chest when four of them ripped it apart and ate every single crumb. And then held in the urge to gag as they all circled around their fallen brethren and began to slice its' limbs off its tiny little midsection.

And they carried the pieces away, each one holding a piece of the Minion she had killed with a sandwich … man the guys back at the guild would _not _believe this.

Deciding it'd be best to follow them back to wherever they were taking the body pieces—hopefully to the rest of the little beasts—so she could summon Leo and scare the things off, she crawled through the branches of trees that were close enough together. She was actually making pretty good progress until one of the branches she had just crossed over onto began to shake and crack under her weight. She had quickly grabbed onto the one above her and yanked herself up just as the branch fell, hitting the earth with a loud crack. Fortunately the Minions didn't look to fully into the fallen tree limb, only picking at the bark slightly and then breaking _it _into pieces and bringing it with them.

It had probably been about a half hour of following the beasts when they finally came to a halt at the edge of the woods. Lucy thanked Mavis for the break, finally being able to completely catch her breath and pick the leaves out of her hair. She'd rather not go walking into town looking like a monster they would want to shoot at. Unfortunately, she couldn't follow them any further than where she was, since she was on the last tree before it went out onto a small grassy ledge—which the minions walked out onto. They lined the edge, their heads bowed slightly for a few seconds before they threw the body pieces over the edge at the same time.

And then jumped right afterwards.

Lucy waited a few seconds before dropping from her branch, tucking and rolling with the drop so she didn't sprain anything. But that didn't mean she _hadn't _rolled over a rock, a few three branches and possible a puddle of the body piece's … fluids. She got to her feet and ducked behind the trunk, waiting to see if they had heard her. When nothing changed, she eased her way out onto the ledge, crawling across the grass like a snake—or a walrus, she assumed looked more accurate. She was slightly nervous to see what was down there, hoping it was their little village or whatever they called it so she could just get them all out and over with and focus on the big task.

And damn right it was their little village.

There were holes dug up all over the place, and there had to be at least three hundred of the little buggers stumbling around on the dirt surfaces. It disturbed her to find a pile of human limbs mixed with tiny blacks ones at the bottom of the cliff. She kept watching curiously—and slightly disgustedly—as two of the creatures walked up to the pile and pick up what she could identify as a rotting male torso. They carried it above their heads and out of her line of vision. She wasn't sure she wanted to know what they did with it.

She crawled away from the ledge and back into the woods, slapping a hand over her mouth to hold in any food that possibly wanted to exit her body the wrong way. Thankfully it was only a few seconds of dry heaving before she leaned against the tree and summoned Leo. She gripped her key firmly, closing her eyes and breathing through her mouth so she couldn't smell the lingering scent of blood and rotten flesh.

"Leo." She simply said in a hushed whisper.

"Ah, my beautiful princess, I was wondering when you were going to call upon me." Leo stated rather loudly. Lucy quickly rushed to throw a hand over his mouth, glancing at the ledge nervously. When, again, nothing seemed to respond to his outburst of loudness, she removed her hands from his mouth.

"You gotta be quiet! There's a big village, camp thing full of Dark Minions down there. I need your help warding them off to someplace else. Away from Wakaba." She said in a hushed shout, leaning in towards Leo as she pulled on his sleeve so she didn't have to stand on her toes.

"Of course, anything for the love of my life." He said, bowing onto one knee and preparing to kiss her hand.

"I wouldn't do that. It's covered in most likely minion blood from when I jumped from that tree." Lucy suggested, but not doing anything physical in stopping him. Loke seemed to agree with her silently by pulling away abruptly, his nose scrunched up to show his displeasure, that he didn't hide very well. But then a new emotion placed itself across the lion spirits face. His eyes began to search the area around them, curiosity and confusion.

"Where's Natsu? Did he abandon you to do all the work again? I swear, the next time I see him, I'll tell him how to treat you right—"

"He never abandoned me. He got flung all the way across the town that _one time_ and I had to summon you so I wasn't completely defenseless—and that's not important right now! I'll explain why I'm alone later, but right now, our priority is down _there." _She whispered harshly, pointing at the ledge.

Leo seemed to process this slowly, thinking over her words in his mind before nodding and throwing her a confident smiling.

"Then why don't we speed this along so I can show you a night to remember?"

"Believe me; I'm pretty sure I couldn't forget what happened here tonight if I wanted to."

^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v

Lucy awoke the next morning in her borrowed apartment, slightly disoriented, extremely sore, but strangely satisfied. She saw a glass of water perched on the bedside table and immediately gulped its contents down. Everything had gone as planned. Using Leo's Lion Brilliance attack had wiped out nearly the entire Dark Minion population, unfortunately, the power of the blast had taken an extreme toll on Lucy's mental strength. She hadn't collapsed immediately; she still had enough strength to ask Leo to finish off the remaining few that huddled in fear behind human body parts. He had quickly finished the job and had turned to face her with possibly a flirtatious comment, but had stopped short at the sight of her ashen face and drooping eyes.

She must have collapsed because she didn't remember anything after that. Leo must have used his own magic to stay in her world to carry her back. Even though she usually didn't like it when her spirits used their own magic to do something she was supposed to do for them, she was entirely grateful for the helping hand her friend had granted her.

And that reminded her.

She grabbed her key set that sat next to the empty cup of water, and grabbed Virgo's key. She had barely even grazed the clean surface before she was in the presence of the pink haired maid.

"Virgo!" Lucy shouted in slight surprise, not expecting her to show up so instantaneously.

"Princess, I was forced back into the spirit world very early this morning. I apologize for not fulfilling my job. Would you like to punish me?" she asked with the same deadpan expression that she always seem to have.

"NO! How many times have I told you, I don't do that kind of stuff! Anyway, did you see anything suspicious while you were still here?" Lucy had forgotten that she had also been keeping Virgo out for nearly the entire night. No wonder she had collapsed so easily after only one of Leo's power surges.

"Again, I apologize. But I did not see anything out of the ordinary, Princess. Would you like to punish—"

"Okay! Thank you, Virgo! You can go back!" Lucy cut the spirit off, laughing a little too loudly and a little awkwardly. In an instant, Lucy was alone again. She sighed in exasperation as she sat up in bed, crossing her legs again as she ran her hands over her face and through her hair. She still felt pretty drained, mentally anyway, but physically, she was alright. A little scraped up and bruised from her journey through the trees and her little tumble out of one, but other than that, she was fine.

Jumping out of her bed, she walked over to the small little bathroom that had been built into the corner. It was actually a decent size, even though it was a little cramped. The mayor had explained that it was the luxury suite in their town, so she didn't complain. It _did _have a shower, sink, and toilet cramped into one little corner. As long as she had hot water, she would be happy.

Stripping out of her dirty clothes, she climbed into the water—hot, thankfully—and began to clean the forest out of her hair. She wasn't entirely surprised to see a few twigs and a lot of dirt drop onto the tub floor, but the caterpillar had been an unexpected surprise.

The mission was going surprisingly well, and moving rather quickly, like she had hoped. But now came the actual challenge. The Heveron. She had absolutely no idea what to do about this. It only came around at night, so that would mean she'd have to sleep during the day—something she'd always been opposed to since it threw off her sleep schedule—and also meant that she'd be spending a lot more time in the forest.

_Joy. _

She quickly exited the shower, dressed herself, wrapped her scrapped up hands tightly with the bandages she had packed in her first aid kit and began to make her way down the street towards the Mayor's office. She had a feeling that he'd like to know that the Dark Minion problem had been solved immediately. She was actually surprised that it had been so incredibly easy, it had only taken the first night and barely five minutes—of you didn't count the stalking through the trees.

((^v^v^v^v^v^v^))

Back in Fairy Tail, Mira was scrubbing out the inside of a beer glass when the Guild doors had been thrown open, startling her to the point of where she nearly dropped the glass—something Mira _never _did. She looked up in surprise as Natsu, Lisanna and Happy came marching into the building, the first two looking disappointed and a little peeved off. They both marched up to the bar, Happy going off to find Carla since he had missed her the entire time he had been gone.

"What are you doing back so early, you two? I was sure that you would have been gone for at least a few days." Mira stated with slight concern as she took in the two expressions on their faces.

"The job got canceled. We had barely gotten to even Hargeon when we heard that the family had found the ring. The man had been on his way here to tell us." Lisanna explained dejectedly, leaning forward onto the counter. "And, plus, the team wasn't really working out as planned." The younger white haired girl added in as an afterthought.

"Why? What happened?" Mira asked in complete shock. Before Lisanna had disappeared, she and Natsu had worked great together—sure, not as well as he and Lucy did, but still, they had maneuvered well.

"We had different transportation ideas." Natsu mumbled simply, not adding anything onto it like Mira had been hoping.

"Well, why don't you try a different job? One that's in more of walking distance?" the eldest transformation mage offered, a nervous smile and sweat beginning to grow. She knew that if she didn't keep Natsu distracted, he would remember the promise that he'd made to go on a mission with Lucy when he got back. And though she'd feel more comfortable if Natsu was _there _with Lucy, she knew the celestial mage could handle herself quite well, and didn't want to accidentally insult her when she had so obviously been excited about doing something for herself.

"Maybe another time." Natsu said, lifting his head from his folded arms with a new shine in his eyes. "Besides, I told Lucy we'd go on a mission when I got back. Well, _I'm back!" _he said with an extreme amount of enthusiasm that even had Lisanna smiling through her mild annoyance.

Mira uncomfortably started to move away from the two, since the conversation was beginning to head in the direction of a certain blonde.

"Where _is _Lucy? She's usually here about now." Natsu asked, the second part more to himself. His eyes skimmed the room, trying to find his busty blonde partner only to turn up empty handed and visibly disappointed.

"I-I haven't seen her yet today." _It wasn't a lie. _Mira thought to herself. Though Natsu didn't seem to notice the slight stutter, Lisanna did, who raised her head and cocked a white eyebrow at her older sister. Mira brought a finger to her lips in a shushing motion, pleading with her big blue eyes to keep quiet. Lisanna gave a sweet smile and a wink before requesting an apple-orange juice mix so Mira would have an excuse to escape. Mira gave an extremely grateful smile and began to rush towards the back room. Though Natsu wasn't the smartest person, he could easily pick up when Mira was lying, so she wanted to avoid any of his prying questions about Lucy.

"Hey, Mira! Wait a second!" She skidded to an awkward halt, the panicked sweat growing on her neck and forehead again. "Do you know where I can find Lucy?" Natsu asked with a hopeful smile. "I want to get to work right away! I was all fired up and I didn't even get to make anything explode!"

"Oh, that's too bad, Natsu. At least it's less paperwork for Master." Mira offered awkwardly, trying to avoid the question as she inched backwards with a stiff smile.

"So do you?"

"Do I what?" Mira asked, her voice cracking rather noticeably. She tried to cover it up with a cough, which was rather pathetic since it cracked, too.

Now Natsu lost his excited smile and was replaced with a suspicious stare. _Oh no, he's catching on! _Mira thought in a panic, her eyes searching the guild for anything to distract the fire dragon slayer. She had never thought the day would come that she wished Gray was there to start a fight with Natsu.

"Do you know where Lucy is?" Natsu asked in a slow tone, which was different since usually it was other people talking to him like that.

"Yes." …

"… Are you going to _tell_ me?" he asked, irritation beginning to grow in his onyx eyes. Mira was feeling extremely guilty for keeping it from Natsu, since he did have the right to know, but she felt she held a promise to Lucy to not tell him where she was.

"T-tell you wh-what?" There was a puddle of nervous sweats growing at her feet as she shuffled awkwardly from foot to foot.

"_Miraaaaa_!" Natsu cried in frustration, not really angrily, since no one could really be all that angry at Mira for any reason at all, but still irritated.

Lisanna sat watching the whole ordeal, wishing she had a bowl of popcorn since it was better than any drama piece she had gone to see. She had to admit, she was extremely curious as to where the no-longer-rookie had gone off to that even had Mira nervous to share.

"Tell me where Lucy is." He said in a completely serious tone, staring Mira right in the eye.

"Wakaba." She said quickly, then turned her back and slapped a hand over her mouth as if she had just cursed Mavis' name. Great, she couldn't even _tell _a lie to him, she had just blurted out the answer without thinking. Natsu was incredibly terrifying when he wanted to be, and she had a feeling that Natsu had never looked more scary than he had just then.

"Why would she be in Wakaba … no, she _didn't." _Natsu's eyes widened at the consideration.

"Aye, the flier's gone, Natsu!" Happy came speeding in and crashed into the dragon slayer's head. The blunt impact didn't even phase the pink haired male.

"Did Lucy actually _take _that mission? And you let _her go on it?" _Natsu's voice was getting increasingly high pitched with each word, making Mira overwhelmingly nervous. Lisanna stared wide-eyed at both of them, at Natsu for getting as close as he had to yelling at Mira, and at Mira for actually giving Lucy the job. Even _she _had steered clear from it; pretty much sensing it was too much to handle.

"At least tell me she took someone with her." Natsu all but pleaded, even though anyone could see that he absolutely loathed the idea of Lucy teaming up with anyone other than him.

"She h-has her s-spirits?" Mira looked about ready to pass out in nervousness, so Lisanna decided to dive in—only it was too late. Natsu had stood from his stool and ran out the door, leaving a fiery trail behind him.

The room had gone dead silent, no one wanting to break the silence until they were absolutely sure that Natsu was gone. It took several minutes and a few people had begun to continue on with what they were doing when Gray came walking inside in all his shirtless glory. He looked slightly confused and a little dazed as he slowly made his way down the steps and to the bar.

"What's the matter, Gray?" Lisanna asked when he sat down beside her.

"I've got to be going crazy or something. I just ran into Natsu, looking for a fight since I haven't had one in the past few hours, but he just brushed me aside saying he didn't have time for me and _got onto a train. Alone!" _Gray pretty much hollered the last sentence, looking completely freaked out with the experience.

"Natsu got on a train? Willingly?" Mira asked, finally having managed to calm herself down a bit. Gray then began to explain the story in a little more detail to the beautiful white haired girls, but Lisanna was only half listening. She smiled sadly down at her lap. _So, he'd go on a train for her, huh? _Then she chuckled gently. Sure, she had been hoping that she could have gotten together with Natsu if she ever got back, since it had been a little painful to watch the Edolas Natsu and Lucy so happy together. Yes, they had been an item, even before Lisanna had shown up. She had hoped that maybe it could have been different back on Earthland, but apparently, even if their personalities were switched a little, it was still Natsu and Lucy.

Because if Earthland Natsu got onto a train with no hesitation whatsoever for someone, that shows that he truly cares _deeply _for someone. The same way Edo Natsu had ditched his car to go help Edo Lucy and stood up for her, even though he had obviously been completely petrified.

_True love in the making. At least I'll get to see how it happens this time. _She thought to herself with another small chuckle.

(^v^v^v^v^v^v^)

_She couldn't have just _waited _for me to get back? _Natsu thought to himself as he sat on the train, his thoughts too preoccupied to even wonder why his motion sickness wasn't acting up. The people that took the train tickets had been too afraid to stop him from entering the vehicle since his face had been a burning red with scales starting to form under his eyes, smoke had began puffing out of his nose and wherever he stepped, he left a tiny little fire that would go out instantly, leaving charred rock. So, in other words? He. Was. Mad.

So what if his sudden rage was a little unnecessary, he was never one to really hold back emotion. If he was happy, he was going to _fucking happy, _if he was sad, _he was going to be fucking sad, _if he was angry, _he was going to burn anyone who got in his way to a fucking crisp. _And right then, he was seriously considering giving the train a little rocket boost and completely skip all the other stops just to get there faster.

What had Lucy been _thinking? _Everyone knew that, even though she _could _hold her ground, Lucy worked better with a team. The fact that she carried her own little team on her hip in the form of keys was a sign alone that Lucy wasn't very powerful without another being. Sure, her kicks hurt _really bad, _but that wasn't going to bring down … what was it that the flier had said? Dark Onions? No, Minions. That was it. And then some rabid dog or something. He hadn't really looked at it, since it seemed somewhat a waste of time when there were bigger jobs that could have been done, ones that involved more fighting. Sure, the job might have been simple enough for him, but _Lucy? _By _herself? _

He couldn't even stand the idea. It actually made him a little nauseous at the thought of Lucy fighting, then running out of magical power and not having anyone there to protect her. If her magic ran out, not even Loke could really do anything, at least Natsu thinks so.

Loke. Damnit. She had Loke with her, of course, her most trusted and powerful spirit. That playboy had probably already put the moves on his partner the second he got summoned. Sure, Natsu liked Loke enough, they were still guildmates after all, and they both wanted to keep Lucy safe, but that was where their mutual agreement stopped. They both wanted her safe, but they disagreed about who should be the one protecting. Loke had pointed out that he was always with her wherever she went, and that Natsu only got to be with her when they were working together and whenever she actually allowed them to stay at her house. But then Natsu would point out that the spirit was actually pretty useless if Lucy were to forget her keys, or ran out of magical power—which had Loke slightly stunned that the supposedly dense pink hair boy had actually had a retort.

And honestly, his hair annoyed Natsu. I mean, whose hair actually _stood up _like that? So stupid …

Anyways. Lucy, think of Lucy. Not Loke or Leo or whatever he goes by nowadays. When he got to Wakaba, he'd track down Lucy, throw her over his shoulder and _carry _her back to the guild if she didn't agree to come quietly with him. She was in over her head with this job—she could get severely hurt. And who the hell jumps into a job that literally tells you that there's an _unknown monster_ that was killing off people? Apparently he couldn't let her leave his sight, since if he left for a few hours; she throws herself into a dangerous situation willingly. Why couldn't she just _wait _for him? She knew perfectly well that he didn't like her fighting on her own—though there was a good possibility that she _didn't _know this, since he never actually _told _her … but she should know better!

Natsu was now huffing in a rather childish way in his seat, his brows furrowed deeply and his lips jutting out in a pout that he would argue about it being 'so adorable'. He _wasn't _adorable, like Lucy always told him just to peeve him off. He was manly and strong and heroic. _Lucy _was the adorable one out of their duo—aside from Happy who was a cat, and was more or less cute than adorable. And he wasn't afraid to admit that he thought she was adorable, to himself anyway. When she acted childish and immature, she was adorable—something he loved to see, since she always stated that she was the reasonable mature one out of everyone. And plus, he felt he could somewhat get along better with the childish Lucy, himself being an adult sized child. But then, there were those times that she had this fiery determination that gave him a new feeling.

Instead of wanting to laugh and ruffle her hair, possibly tug her into a hug like when he thought her to be adorable, a new feeling would stir when he saw that passion in her eyes. It made him feel hot in his chest, hotter than normal anyway, like there was boiling lava just sitting behind his rib cage. Whenever he saw that look it actually made him falter for a second, because instead of adorable, she would look _absolutely beautiful. _The way her jaw would be clenched into a firm grasp, her brow furrowed in concentration and that _fire. _He could see it smoldering in her chocolate brown eyes. These new feelings made him slightly uneasy, never having felt them before. So he tried to push it aside, hoping maybe it would go away even though he had to admit it felt kind of nice. These feelings were showing up more and more as of late—and it only happened when he was with, saw or thought of Lucy.

In fact, even though he wasn't entirely sure what these feelings were, he knew that they were stronger than what he should feel for a friend. He wasn't sure if it was this 'love' thing, cause he knew he loved Lucy, he just wasn't sure if it was platonic or … mate love. At least, Igneel had told him he'd one day have feelings for someone like this, and that this person would smell _amazing, _he just never really understood what these feelings were suppose to be like. Igneel never really got into detail on the feelings themselves, only that he'd have them and that the person he felt them towards was _the _person for him. And, he really did love the way Lucy smelt. She smelt a lot better than everyone else in the guild, even better than Lisanna—who he had used to think smelt wonderfully. But now, Lucy's scent seemed to be everywhere for him, and it had him almost on a sort of high. Did that mean that Lucy was …

Natsu was snapped out of his Lucy based thoughts when he heard tapping on his window. He refocused his eyes and saw Happy struggling to keep up with the train and get Natsu's attention at the same time. The dragon slayer was quick to open the window and help his blue friend inside of the vehicle.

^v^v^v^v^v^

Lucy was quite literally about ready to pass out from either boredom or just the mental exhaustion from the night before. Either way, the pile of books lying on the table in front of her was beginning to look extremely similar to a cloud of pure comfort. After her visit to the Mayor's Office, she had headed towards the local library, hoping to find _anything _whatsoever on this Heveron thing—even if it was just the name.

But her mental strength was wavering between being conscious and dreaming. She had almost fallen out of her chair about three times in the last twenty minutes, so she was considering just _buying _the books and going back to her room. She was having no luck, and she had gone through at least seven books—using her magic glasses to speed through it—in finding anything on the Heveron. The librarian had done everything he could to get what she needed, fussing over her shoulder when she first started reading until she told him to go and get himself a cup of coffee and relax so she could focus. The man was currently running around the library at hyper speed with his cup rattling in his hand as he shelved books at a pace that shouldn't be considered possible—_even for a Fairy Tail mage_.

"Hey, sir!" Lucy called after the gust of wind that had raced behind her. Immediately a short brown haired boy, maybe nineteen years of age, skidded to a halt at her shoulder, his eyes looking wide and dilated and he was twitching sporadically.

"Can I help you, Ms. Lucy?" he asked, his voice sounding jittery. She was a little unnerved how his eyes bore into her without blinking and looking like they never intended to.

"Um, yeah. I was wondering if maybe I could just borrow this book instead of buying it. I don't even know if it has what I need in it. I promise I'll return it as soon as I'm done." She said, her eyes glimmering hopefully as she looked up at the man, but quickly averted her eyes since he still had yet to blink.

"Of course! Take whatever you need!" he shouted. Lucy found it rather ironic that the librarian was the one being loud in the library, since usually they were the ones shushing people if you so much as whispered louder than the wind blows.

"Thanks!" she said, giving him a small, awkward smile before packing up the books that she needed to still look over and started towards the front door.

She needed to meditate and build up her mental power for the coming night … and maybe take a little nap. She had gotten barely any sleep at all the night before, since she had spent most of it keeping watch for the Dark Minions and then stalking them through the trees. She'd need as much energy as she could get, since this time, the enemy was a lot more powerful.

Lucy sneezed suddenly, causing her to stop in her tracks. Even though it had been tiny, it had made her brain feel like it was rattling around inside her skull. Yeah, she definitely needed to get some sleep. She was about to take another step when another sneeze racked through her body and out her nose. And then another. And then another. She stood up straight, resting a hand on her forehead as the world swayed slightly. Yep. Definitely needed a nap. And she hoped she wasn't getting sick. She couldn't afford something like that right now. She needed to help these people as best as she could. Maybe someone was talking about her, or something.

When she was sure that her little sneezing fit was done, she hurried to get back to her room, jogging the rest of the way down the street. She was back in her room rather quickly, the bag that held her books being tossed on the ground next to the bed as she flopped down onto the plush mattress. The pillows and sheets were calling to her. And she was beyond tempted to heed their call.

Kicking off her shoes, she tugged the sheets out from their posh position of being made and stuffed herself under them, smacking her fist into the pillow to make a little crevice for her head. Just a short nap. That was all she needed. Hopefully she'd be fully rejuvenated when she woke up and would be able to stay up the entire night. Also, she put her mind into her meditative state, so her mental strength would be at full power when she woke up.

(&)(&)

She knew she hadn't slept for very long, since the sun was still rather high in the sky when she woke up, but she still felt a lot more refreshed than before.

She sat up and kicked the sheets off of her legs, leaning over the side of the bed to grab the bag full of books. She thought it'd be best to search for what she could before she started the mission that coming night. Lucy brought out the thicker of the three books and sat it in her lap, turning to the first page that held the index. There wasn't anything specific about "Heverons" like she had assumed there wouldn't, but there was a section about hell beasts.

But as she turned to the listed page, she was disappointed, yet thrilled at what she saw. What she could see on the page was the top half of some kind of black dog head, but what disappointed her was that more than half the page was missing. She couldn't even tell if it was even the beast she was looking for since there were hundreds of dog like monsters—but she had that feeling as she looked at what remained of the picture. That one absolutely positive feeling that it was what she was looking for.

But the page was gone. And it was definitely done by somebody in a rush, and not by old age. So, who would want to rip out this particular page, and why? Frustration began to rise in her chest as she continued to stare at the damaged book that could have possibly held the answers to her unanswered questions.

With a growl, she grabbed Crux's and sliced it through the air, never taking her eyes off of the page. The elder spirit didn't need to say anything, already sensing the tension in the air to tell that she was extremely serious with whatever it was that she was asking.

"There's a page missing out of _this _book. And I think it held information on what I need. Can you tell me anything about this particular chapter?" she asked with a dead pan expression, lifting the book for the old cross to see.

"I'll see what I can do." And immediately fell asleep.

While he searching for whatever he could, Lucy started looking through the remaining two books, coming up completely empty handed with nothing to help her whatsoever. But she continued to try and hold her composure, trying to keep a level head. Spazzing out and getting angry wouldn't solve anything. Patience and concentration was the way to solve this.

"Ms. Lucy, I am displeased to tell you that the particular page is not what you're looking for. It was about a different being, known as a Hell Hound. That is not what you were looking for, correct?"

Lucy sighed out in exasperation, running her hands over her face and through her hair.

"I guess it's all I really have. Tell me what you know St. Crux, anything is better than nothing."

(^)^)^)^)^)^)

Night was beginning to fall quickly as Lucy began making her way towards the edge of town again, tugging the small, dainty backpack tighter around her shoulders. Nothing that Crux had said really sounded important, even for the creature it was talking about, but what she found interesting was that a hell hound could change its appearance to human. She began to have her suspicions that maybe the beast she was actually looking for was the hell hound, but she wasn't so sure about anything. There was a lot of information that had gotten crammed into her mind in the last hour.

After Crux had told her the little facts that the article in the book had held, she had left to go and find herself a weapon, deciding that she would be better off with one. She got lucky with the sandwich the other night, but she had a feeling that it wouldn't work a second time, especially on whatever this monster really was. She had taken a brief lesson on how to use the metallic staff that had many different forms of attack. Definitely better than a sandwich, which she had brought yet again to hold her over for the night—along with a small bag of chips, an orange and a bottle of water.

She had also asked around the small town where they would guess the beast would most likely appear, hoping to come across it sooner than later. She was still full of energy and she'd rather face the creature that way instead of half conscious and stiff from sitting in a tree for hours at a time. They also said that drawing it out of hiding wasn't too difficult; just walk around the darkest part of the forest and it will for sure appear.

And that's exactly where she was heading. She was going deep into the west side of the forest, where it was already dark even though the sun was still up. She wanted to get this job over and done with and get home as soon as possible. Even if she did get home before Natsu returned, she knew that his sense of smell would pick up on this areas particular scent if she stayed too long. That would mean questions about where she had went and why she had been there, something she'd rather avoid. And also, if she got beat up too much, that would definitely draw suspicion from the dragon slayer. She couldn't blame every injury on tripping over Plue and falling down the stairs.

Lucy groaned when the thin tree branch she had been pushing out of her way slipped from her hand and smacked her in the forehead, knowing that there was at the least going to be a red scrape there. Another injury she'd probably have to explain. She could always cover it up with her bangs, or a pretty hat. But that would only work for so long, so she hoped that she'd have time to heal before she or Natsu got back. Oh man, she was going to get a mouthful from Mira when she _did _get back.

The foliage was beginning to become too thick for her to squeeze through, so she started to back track a little and find a way around it. But her foot caught on an uprooted root and she spun and twisted in the air before rolling onto the ground. She must have hit her head on a tree or something because her vision was slightly fuzzy and there was a throbbing on the side of her head. For the love of Mavis, _why was she so clumsy today?! _She pushed herself onto her knees and wiped the dirt, grass and leaves off of her arms and hair before standing and doing the same to her legs. When she looked up, she realized what had just occurred …

She had spun and twisted and rolled so much that she lost where she was backtracking to. She didn't know what direction was which, which way was deeper into the woods and which way was the way back to town. In other words, Lucy was now … lost. She wanted to call upon Pyxis, but according to her contract, he wasn't available today. And she always followed her contracts, and she didn't plan on breaking that streak right then.

Wondering around aimlessly was either sure to get her more lost or she'd find a stroke of luck and find her way back to town, but judging with the way her day had been going, she assumed that it wasn't going to end with the later. So, she sat on the ground in the lotus position, and began to meditate. She needed to clear her thoughts and focus, and maybe she'd be able to figure out a plan on what to do next. She could always call upon Virgo to dig a tunnel out of there, but if she was lost, so were her spirits. For all she knew, Virgo could end up accidentally digging them deeper into the woods. Taurus would just chop down all the trees in his way and cause a ruckus, not to mention destroy nature. Leo wouldn't be of much assistance other than getting on her nerves saying something along the lines that 'as long as we're together, we'll never be lost' or something cheesy and totally cliché. Aquarius was completely useless in this situation, unless Lucy felt the need for an extreme beat down for opening her gate in a muddy puddle of her water bottle. She could call on Crux, maybe he'd know how to map out the area, but that wasn't really his area of expertise. He knew history and facts, not travel and navigation.

So, she hoped for one of those moments of clarity that she had gotten once before when she was meditating. It hadn't been a big deal, but she had seen a vision of herself getting hit with a Frisbee at the beach in the exact spot she had been sitting, so she had shifted over the slightest bit. And sure enough, a Frisbee had come slicing through the air at a deadly speed and hit the spot she had just been sitting at. She was hoping for one of those visions to help her get out of there.

So, she focused. She used her senses to feel the area around her. She could smell the earth and the trees surrounding her, a hint of lilies and possibly some sort of nectar. She could feel the moist, soft grass underneath her crossed legs, and the nightly dew soaking into her shorts. She could hear the silence that engulfed her, the small sounds of birds and bugs shifting through the trees. Everything was as it should be in the woods. But there was definitely something in the air, making it thick and cold at the same time. It sent chills down her spine and goose bumps all over body, but she remained focused and took notice to the smaller things that she needed to struggle for; the hint of maple in the air, the leaves rustling silently across the ground, the faint smell of smoke, possibly from a house in the town. She couldn't exactly pin point where the scent was coming from, but she could definitely smell it.

A gasp slipped past her lips as a scene played behind her closed eyes at top speed. Though it took less than a second for her to see it, she knew what she saw easily, like it had been playing in slow motion. She quickly jumped to her feet and ripped her special staff out of her bag, whipping it to her side so it would extend to a longer, more deadly, length. She tensed her limbs, ready to leap out of the way of anything that came her way.

That creature was nearby, and if she didn't move from this area soon and find a place to hide, she would be ripped to pieces in a matter of seconds. Keeping her grip firm on the staff, she spun on her heel and ran in a random direction, weaving her way around the trees that seemed to pop up out of the darkness. Thank god her senses were still heightened slightly, because if she didn't have good eyesight right then and there, she probably would have ran into one of them right away. But instead of looking straight ahead, she probably should have been watching her feet more, because her right foot, yet again, caught on a root.

She managed to stay standing, but there had been an unusual pain in the right side of her ankle when she put pressure on it. If she hadn't been used to pain by then, she probably would have collapsed to her knees at the pressure. She kept all her weight on her left foot as she started down at the other, poking it with her staff to see where it hurt. When she hit a tender spot on the ankle, she hissed in pain, clenching her teeth.

Definitely a sprain. Damnit. This was _so _not the time for this. Damnit. Damnit. _Damnit! _

It was beginning to hurt immensely, bringing tears to her eyes. There's a possibility that it was worse than a sprain. Not broken, but highly possibly worse than a sprain. Maybe she broke a tendon or something. She really didn't know. She wasn't going to be able to get anywhere any time soon on her own, so she reached down and grabbed Leo's key, silently summoning him.

"Lucy, my—what happened?" he said the very second he popped up. He stared at her for barely a second before immediately rushing to her aid, throwing her arm over his shoulder so she didn't have to lean against the tree.

"I was running and wasn't paying attention to where I was going. There's definitely something wrong with my ankle though. Can you keep watch for anything suspicious while I wrap it?" she asked, pleading that he just went along with what she said without too many questions. He merely nodded and helped her get comfortable on the ground before turning his back in a battle ready stance, prepared to protect his master.

Lucy sat her staff beside the leg that she had stretched out to her side, the hurt one crossed over it and held close so she could reach the injured part. She pulled the small roll of bandages out of her bag and was about to begin wrapping her ankle when there as a series of loud snapping and crashing coming from the side. She and Loke shared a look, wondering if it was really this so called, deadly beast approaching them. If it was, it obviously didn't care if they heard it. Either way, Loke changed his position and stood in front of Lucy, his fists clenched as he waited for whatever was making its way towards them.

"_LUCY!" _a voice bellowed out from the direction all the noise was coming from. Lucy immediately tensed at the familiar voice, eyes widening as she stared at Loke's back. What was _he doing here?! _He was supposed to be on his mission with Lisanna, and there was no way they made it back already! Even if they took the train! In technicality, they should have been arriving at their town about now if they _did _take the train.

Making a quick decision, she grabbed her staff, made one end become pointed and used it to shuffle herself behind the tree. The noises that came out were rather loud from the pain on her ankle and the exertion from moving without any help, but at least she was hidden. Though that wouldn't really do anything to help much.

When the noise stopped and nothing happened, she closed her eyes and breathed a sigh of relief. Either Leo was holding him off and talking, or he had gone the wrong way in finding them. But when she opened her eyes, she was met with familiar onyx eyes mere inches from her own. And though they were as dazzling dark as usual, they held a sort of relieved anger/ impatience. She shrieked in surprise, jerked backwards and hitting her head against the tree trunk.

"_What _are you doing?" Natsu asked with a deadpan voice, his eyes half lidded as he stared at her. She held in the smile when she saw the very little tint of concern for when she hit her head.

"Oh, you know, just resting up from my, uh, long hike." She said, giving a nervous smile at her dear friend.

"Oh, really? Is that so?" he asked, his eyes never leaving hers as he moved his hand to her foot and poked it gently. Even though it was gentle and he barely grazed her ankle, pain spiked up her leg, causing her face to contort in pain. His eyes narrowed in rage, his teeth clenching as he stood to his feet, his anger now directed towards Loke. "How did she get hurt?! You're supposed to protect her!" Natsu said, marching up to the spirit and poking him roughly in the chest.

"She didn't summon me until just now!" the irate lion snarled back, shoving Natsu back.

"That shouldn't matter! She needs to be _protected! _That's your job!" Natsu growled right back, getting up in Leo's face. "But I guess she doesn't need you now, does she?" he whispered harshly so just Loke could hear.

"You guys, I'm fine! It's just a little sore, it's nothing to get so angry about—" she was cut off when two glared met her own eyes.

"You have no say in this." They said in unison, continuing to stare at her with agitated glares until she pouted and broke their locked gazes.

"Why are you getting mad at me? _You're _her partner, what was she doing out here on her own?"

"I was out of town and didn't even know she was going to go on a mission! I thought we agreed to go on one together when _I got back!" _Natsu retorted, the last part directed more at Lucy. He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye with a look that said 'you got some explaining to do'.

Leo was about to say something back when he disappeared in a flash of light, leaving Lucy and Natsu alone. The dragon slayer looked over at the celestial wizard and saw she held Leo's key in her hand and was putting it away.

"That is quite enough, Natsu." She said, not meeting his eyes as she picked up the roll of bandages again and began to pull off her shoe, hissing in pain at the movement. In a seconds notice Natsu was at her side, grabbing her wrists from doing anything else.

"You. Talk. I'll do this." He said, taking the roll of bandages from her hand and sitting cross legged on the ground next to her, setting her foot in his lap. "What were you thinking? I thought we were going on one when I got back." He said, sounding slightly hurt, but he masked it pretty well.

"We were! I still planned on going on one with you! But I needed the money badly for my rent, and you and Lisanna were all excited about going on this mission and I didn't want ruin it for you guys. So I thought I'd just go on one by myself while you were gone, get the money I needed, and then we could go on one when you got back." Lucy quickly explained, barely stopping to breathe as she summed it up.

"You could have just _told _me ya know. Lisanna would have understood and we could have waited for another day to go." He said rather accusingly.

"Well, what are you doing back so early? You should have been gone at least a week. I would have had this job finished up before you guys got back!" she said, poking him in the side of the head. He glanced up at her, slight amusement taking place on his frustrated and concentrated face for a split second before it disappeared. He kept his attention on her ankle, his heated hand gripping the injury. The pain was beginning to dull, but not disappear. He did this for her a lot whenever she pulled a muscle or got a cramp.

"The job got cancelled and our ideas of transportation were different. That's all I'll say. It just wasn't working out." He said as he pulled his hand away and started to tightly wrap the limb. She flinched and winced the entire time, him only glancing up at her and smiling apologetically, but continued on with the procedure. "Why didn't you take someone with? That would have been better than you being alone."

"I had my spirits." She said quickly.

"And look how that turned out." He said pointedly, finishing his work by slipping her boot back on her foot. The wrapping was tight and the support the boot gave helped the pain seem nonexistent.

"This was my own fault. I tripped over a root, it's not like I could summon a spirit in a split second just to catch me from falling." She mumbled, crossing her arms and pouting childishly. "Besides, I already finished half the job. I got rid of the Dark Minions easily last night, I would have been home soon, anyways."

"That doesn't matter. Though I'd prefer if it was me that you took, I'd rather you have someone else with you if I can't." he said, scooting closer to the tree. "Now, let's get you some real help." He said, shoving one arm underneath her knees and the other going to her waist, heaving her into his embrace. On instinct she wrapped her arms around his neck with a squeak as he stood up.

"I can walk, Natsu. And I have a job to finish. I need the money or else I won't be able to keep my apartment." She said, trying to jerk herself out of his hold, but his grip only tightened.

"No way am I putting you down. Judging with how beat up you look, you'll only end up hurting yourself even more. And no way are you finishing this job. I'll go collect what reward you've earned and I'll help pay for your rent." He said, beginning their walk.

"What's up with the mature attitude all of a sudden, eh?" Lucy quirked an eyebrow up at him, amusement shining in her voice. She didn't get the response she was hoping for; only gaining a shrug, but it was enough. "Fine, you can help _with the job, _but there's no way I'm just leaving this place with that demon dog thing."

"Demon dog thing?" Natsu stopped walking, looking at Lucy in realization. "I think I ran into it on the way here." He said, starting to jog in a different direction than where he had been heading. Though they were going rather fast, Lucy wasn't jostled whatsoever, but she _did _hold onto him tighter and bury her face in his scarf. And she only looked up when they came to a stop.

Looking down at their feet, she gasped at what she saw. There, on the ground, was a giant black dog with red eyes, lying on the ground unconscious. The thing was gargantuan, maybe the size of a rhino if she had to guess.

"Y-you … you finished the job for me." she said, sounding rather stunned and a little … disappointed. She wanted to be known as the person that helped save this town, but apparently, it had been finished without her even knowing.

"I guess I did. I was on my way to you, since I picked up on your scent and stuff, and this thing just jumped out of nowhere and tried to eat my head. But one punch and it was down and out." He explained, nudging the thing's head with his sandaled foot.

"We should probably take it with us to the Mayor. The job is done, so I guess I _do _have to leave." She said, staring down at the dog.

"It wouldn't matter if the job was done or not, you'd be coming back with me anyway. Once we got back, I would have just sent someone else to finish it for you." He said, shifting Lucy around in his arms so she could crawl onto his back and wrap her arms around his neck. While he supported her with one hand, he used the other to grab the hound by the scruff behind its neck and drag it with them.

"Why couldn't you just do it while you were here?"

"Because clearly I can't let you out of my sight for too long. Who knows, you might get tangled up in your bed sheets and suffocate if I leave you to rest up." He said. Even though he had a joking tone to it, he sounded dead serious about not being able to leave her alone for too long.

"Oh, don't be so overprotective. I'm fine. We'll get back to the guild and Wendy can heal me up in no time." She said, rolling her eyes. And when she rested her head on his shoulder, her face being buried in his scarf, Natsu couldn't help but smile at her.

When he had first arrive, her scent had been extremely faint, nearly impossible to track. But for some reason, it was almost _too _easy to find her. He didn't even have to follow the actual trail, he could just pick up her scent in the wind and managed to pin point where she was. He had never been able to do that for anyone else. And he had to admit, when he finally caught her scent, it felt like an impossible weight had been lifted from his chest. He had found her minutes after he arrived, and what do you know, she'd been hurt and Leo hadn't been able to help. Big shocker.

And to add onto this revelation, he had thought more about what Igneel had said, and found everything had some connection to his blond partner. The extreme over protectiveness, the possessive feeling he got whenever she went on missions with other guys (or even really talked to them), the jealousy when she gave her undivided attention to someone else (even Happy), the feeling of unbridled joy when she laughed, smile, talked and touched him and then the need to always have her at his side. Igneel had explained that once it's official, it will almost become painful to be separated. It was _already _painful to be apart, for him anyway.

And one of the better things that Igneel had told him was that he didn't have to worry about the feelings being mutual. Dragon's destinies intertwined with their mates before they even meet, so the feelings are or would eventually become mutual. And he had a feeling that it was already that way, judging by the heat radiating from her cheeks as she tried to hide her smile and blush in his scarf.

And she smelt _very _delicious. He was actually holding back the temptation to stretch out his tongue and lick her. He couldn't even really pin point on what the scents were a blend of, just that it made him want to push her against a tree and _ravish her. _But since he couldn't do _that _without a reasonable explanation, he would be content with just carrying her … for now.

And he flat out refused to release her from his hold for the rest of the day. When they went to pick up the reward, he continued to hold her princess style, when they got on the train, he kept his arm around her waist so they were pressed shoulder to shoulder, and when they got back to the guild, she was tossed over his shoulder and marched up to Mira. And thus Natsu held a very serious conversation with Mira about letting Lucy go out on jobs without him—saying it _was not allowed. _

Because he wasn't letting go.

**I know, really … um, rushed, at the end and shuddup it seemed like a good idea when I first started then I ended up not wanting to keep going, but I felt like I should finish something in my life for once. Apparently a really big mistake because Natsu turned out EXTREMELY OOC, and I'm sorry. I guess, when I do write about Natsu and Lucy, he's gonna be out of character—but hopefully in a good way (protective and sorta possessive, I love it). **


	2. Rule Number 1

Rule Number 1

"But I don't get why _I _have to do it; why not Erza or Gray, or even Master?!" Natsu complained, leaning back in his stool against the bar countertop to stare at the ceiling. Lucy sat in the stool beside him, within close proximity to the Dragon Slayer, knowing full well that if she sat too far away, he'd just end up dragging her closer. She giggled lightly into her hand before reaching out and running a hand through his hair comfortingly.

"Because Erza and Gray went out on a mission, remember? And, well, Master's the one that gave you the order. Besides, we don't want him scaring off any of the girls with his … behavior." Lucy said, her smile growing slightly when the pink haired boy leaned into her touch, his eyes closing as he basked in her comforting gesture.

"But the rookies are so … annoying … nowadays." Natsu mumbled, shifting so he was leaning against his blonde haired partner and mate. Lucy had to refrain from laughing aloud when what sounded like a purr emitted from the boy.

"Would you like me to step in for you?" she offered, removing her hands from his hair—which he responded to with a disappointed pout, eyes still closed as he nudged his head against her shoulder, trying to get her to pet him again.

"No way, remember last time?" Natsu said, opening his narrowed eyes to stare into her chocolaty brown orbs. "That guy pretty much assaulted you." He stated accusingly while poking her in the cheek with his finger.

"He didn't see the mug lying on the ground, tripped over it and fell on me. It was an accident. How many times have I explained this to you?" She grumbled in agitation as she pulled her shoulder out from underneath Natsu's head, letting it fall smack onto the counter.

Natsu just pouted up at the beautiful celestial mage. Sure, that might have seemed like what happened, but Natsu saw right through the little bastards act. But of course, innocent little Lucy didn't pick up on the fact that the rookie—who was now prominently terrified of the color pink—had smirked the entire time he eyed the mug and as he pressed his pointed nose between Lucy's luscious breasts. Everybody in the guild had seen through it, except for the victim of the crime itself. The boy had been booted out of the guild in a matter of seconds after that by the Master. No one sexually assaulted one of his daughters and got away with it—except for himself that is.

Getting into Fairy Tail was not an easy task anymore. It was easy to get a chance, but if you showed even the slightest of misbehavior, you were out without a second thought. There had been a total of six dark guild members that had tried to weasel their way into their beloved nakama, but had failed, fortunately. So in other words, security was tight. Thanks to a newer guild member, it was easy to pick out the bad apples from the genuinely good apples—but that was for later.

"They'll be here soon, if you don't want to do it, I can." She offered again with a sigh.

Natsu seemed to contemplate this for a few seconds, leaning his chin into his hand while closing his eyes. Well, if he did it, there could be advantages to it … and plus, there wouldn't be the risk of his beloved mate getting assaulted again.

"Nah, I'll do it." He said with a sigh, turning in his chair to face Lucy with a smile. She gave a somewhat startled look at his submission, but then returned his smile. She leaned forward to peck the dragon on the lips briefly before standing and stretching her arms above her head.

They had been together for quite some time now, nearing on almost a year and a half, but not much had really changed between them. Sure, they kissed, hugged and cuddled a lot more than before, but that was saved more for when they were alone. They were best friends above everything else, but that didn't stop Natsu from completely demolishing anyone that looked at her with even a hint of lust—something he would argue any best friend would do.

The doors of the guild opened with a bell, a few people looking up to see the group of boys that had walked in; the rookies. Apparently Natsu had had the right idea of taking the job, because a few of them looked rather lecherous. He too stood to his feet, tossing an arm around Lucy's shoulder in a sideways hug before walking past her towards the group.

"So, you guys are our new recruits, eh?" he asked as he approached, putting on the most disarming smile he could. "I'm Natsu, I've been assigned showing you guys our guild." He pointed to himself in the chest with his thumb with pride before gesturing to the large room behind him.

The group looked around in awe, or at least a few of them did, the others he knew weren't particularly listening to him, since their eyes seemed to be drawn to the many females scattered around at the tables. He glanced over his shoulder to see if Lucy was in any of their gazes, finding her seated yet again at the bar, chatting animatedly with Mira and Levy.

"Okay, there's a few things you need to know about Fairy Tail before I show you around." He said, clapping his hands together to draw their attention back to him. "First thing you need to know, _that,_" he pointed at Lucy with a pointed look at the group, "is mine. Off limits. If you remember that, you shouldn't have much trouble … with me anyways." He said with a chuckle, crossing his arms. "But, if you even think about touching her …" he said in a hushed, venomous tone. The carefree aura about him disappearing instantly and was replaced with one that could rival a pissed off Erza. "Let's not get into detail. I'm sure you can find someone that will share the facts."

And gone was the evil smirk and auras, and back was the smile and charms.

"Second, there are a few people you'll want to avoid pissing off …"

(^v^v^v^v^)

"Well, I don't think we have to worry about Master assigning you as the rookie tour guide anymore." Lucy said through her teeth as she dragged Natsu to the guild's bar by the ear. She had been working on her temper and didn't plan on losing it right then, but Natsu was really pushing her limits.

"Those little bastards deserved every punch and burn they got! _Owwwwwwie…" _Natsu grumbled, pushing his head into Lucy's hand so the pressure on his ear would cease. She yanked him to a stool and forced him into an awkward sitting style. "Now stay. Right. There." She said, putting a fist on her hip and holding one finger to his face, pressing his nose into his face. "Mira, please make sure he doesn't move."

"H-hey! Where are you going?!" he squawked out when she turned on her heel and began to walk away.

"To apologize for you." She said without turning to look at him, making her way to the pile of out cold boys that no one deemed important enough to do anything about.

"But—" he began to get up from his seat, when she turned around and gave him a ferocious scowl, he dropped himself back down onto the chair. He watched with alert cautiousness as _his _blonde celestial mage made her way to the pile of boys again, biting his tongue when they all seemed to perk up at the sight of her.

"Hey, guys. I'm really sorry about my boyfriend—"

"_Mate!" _

"—and I wanna make it up to you guys. Can I get you anything to help with … you're injuries?" She offered awkwardly when she caught a few of them staring down the front of her shirt when she bent down to their level.

They seemed to share a few looks with one another before nodding.

"Could you kiss them?" a red haired boy asked, putting on an innocent pout and puppy dog eyes. Lucy faltered slightly, jumping back a bit at the request. It didn't take much looking for her to see that the request was anything _but _innocent, with the way some of them were trying to hide their devious smirks. She could hear Natsu throwing a gargantuan fit behind her as Mira held him back with only one hand.

"Why you little brats! What did I tell you—"

_Slam!_

Now, Natsu was no longer freaking out. A smile spread across his face as he watched with amusement as Lucy slammed her fist down on top of each of the boys' heads. He leaned back in his stool and gave a lazy smirk to Mira, who was trying to suppress her giggles.

"Get our usuals?"

Mira didn't reply with words, merely giving a tiny giggle and a nod before going off to get their drinks ready. When Natsu looked back up, he saw Lucy making her way towards him, putting her Cancer key back on the ring. Curious, the pink haired dragon slayer glanced around his approaching mate to see that every single one of the boys in the group was completely bald, and judging by the smoke rising from them, he assumed that she sicked Loki on them, too.

"You know what? I think our Nakama doesn't need to grow anymore." Lucy groaned as she took the seat next to Natsu, her head slumping down onto the marble counter. She waited to hear Natsu's agreement, or even a chuckle at her ignorance when someone's being perverted. Instead, she was met with silence and the shivers of his intense gaze—which she didn't need to see to know was on her. She glanced up to see that she was correct, his deep onyx eyes were staring intently at the side of her head. But it was more like he was thinking intently, not really looking at her.

"I have to disagree." He finally said with a thoughtful expression, leaning back against his stool again to look at the ceiling.

"What? Really? But you were just complaining about the rookies being annoying." She said exasperated, leaning her elbow against the counter and resting her cheek in her palm.

"I didn't mean other random strangers. I meant making our own." He said the last part with a gentle smile, turning to look at her with a half-lidded gaze. Lucy could feel the blush spread from her face, down her neck to her shoulders, glowing brightly with a shade that would resemble Erza's hair. She wanted to call him out about teasing her with stuff like that, but then she met his eyes and saw sincerity glimmering in their depth.

"A-are you serious?" she mumbled, shifting back and forth on her legs, lifting her eyes to occasionally meet his eyes briefly.

"Yup." Lucy stiffened when she felt his breath on her ear, having not noticed that he had leaned towards her now, up in her personal space (something he says does not exist involving him, but with other males holds a distance between five feet to six miles; depending on their attractiveness, lecherousness or how friendly they are).

"N-Natsu, I d-don't know… we're still so young and all …"

"What? You wanna be all old and wrinkly when the kids are all balls of energy? Besides, you're stuck with me for the rest of your life, remember? Making babies was part of the whole 'mate' deal, I was telling you about." Natsu said with a somewhat smug smirk, but there was an encouraging gentleness in his eyes that kind of contradicted his smirk.

"You never said that!"

"Pretty sure I did, but you were sorta, maybe a little, kinda, somewhat, may or may not have been asleep at the time. But it's a part of the package, so I'm expecting a bunch of little dragons sometime in the future."

Lucy had to avert her eyes to hide her blush. Natsu really hadn't been this forward with what he wanted from her when they were still 'just friends', but ever since she agreed to be his mate, since girlfriend didn't really seemed to 'fit her position' as he would say, he had been more … open about what he wanted. And it was hard to adjust from the innocent minded boy that didn't understand the word seduction to this somewhat demanding-of-affection man.

"Well, I guess, of course, I want to, but—" she was about to continue, but was cut short when Natsu suddenly grabbed her by the waist and held her up in the air over his head, doing some strange gallivanting skip to the doors.

"Well, then, let's get started!" he said with a laugh.

"I didn't meant now!" she cried out, her blush growing a darker shade yet again as the guild began to laugh and cheer on the couple. She eventually gave up after smacking her fists against his back a few times, slumping down as if her bones had suddenly disappeared. "This idiot…"

**A.N. Just a quick idea that sprouted from a sentence I read somewhere *shrug*. Ended a little differently than I expected, but, ya know.**


	3. Challenge Accepted

Challenge Accepted 

"Alright Natsu!"

"Way to go!"

"Congrats!"

"How to _hell_ did _you _pass?!"

These were only a few of the phrases being throw at the pink haired Dragon Slayer as he made it back to the guild, Happy sitting on his shoulder pretty much gleaming with pride. For this day on, Natsu was now an official S-class wizard. After the Magic Games came to an end and the dragon-based apocalypse was resolved, the guild had settled back into their normal routines of missions, brawls and good times. And then the S-class finals came around on schedule, the same group as last time being picked since the Master deemed the whole Tenrou Island incident a disruption, incomplete. Unfortunately, though, two particular wizards stayed behind.

Cana, being one of them, had decided that she wouldn't stand a chance against the others and would try again next year, if she got called on that is. And Lucy, being the other. No one else really needed a partner. Natsu had paired up with Happy again, Gray had taken Loki, there was no way in hell she was teaming up with Juvia (guessing the water mage would 'unintentionally' drown her the moment Lucy said anything that would remind the blunette of Gray), Elfman chose Evergreen, and Levy had been 'forced' to join forces once again with Gajeel.

In other words, leaving her with no one to tag along with. She just hoped that they didn't have a repeat of what happened last time, because she was positive that her mental strength would crack if she didn't have all those crazy lunatics around for too long.

So, she bid everyone a farewell as they loaded the ship, gaining a hug from Levy and Happy. Natsu had merely clapped her on the back and ruffled her hair, asking her to wish him luck before boarding with the others. Loki of course had attempted to do a long proposal of how he would miss her dearly and that even if they were separated, he would do everything within his power to get back to her if she needed him. Of course she didn't let him finish and tossed him onto the ship with her own hands, gaining a grateful thanks from Gray who had been getting impatient waiting for his partner to board. Juvia of course had assumed that it was Gray being jealous of the Loki's confession, making her jealous and throwing a look of despair at her 'love rival'. Lucy merely gave an awkward wave before waving more enthusiastically at everyone as they took off.

So the week they had been gone had been excruciatingly quiet and rather boring. In fact, without the random intrusions of her friends every day, her schedule had been thrown completely off, making her rather irritable. But her mood seemed to lift the moment the doors were thrown open, Natsu coming parading in in front of the others. Of course, the exam was anyone's game, but she wasn't really all that surprised that Natsu was the one to pass. He was definitely S-class worthy in her opinion, one of the strongest mages in Fairy Tail; possibly all of Fiore. But then, this brought on less cheerful thoughts pertaining herself.

She wanted to rush up to Natsu and give him a hug, but since everyone else in the Guild was surrounding him, she assumed that she would just be pushed back or bounce right off of the outside layer of people. So she waited for either an opening, or for him to approach her himself. But she was rather surprised when Happy launched himself off of Natsu's shoulder and came rocketing in her direction. She barely had time to prepare for impact before the blue exceed crashed into her chest, succeeding in knocking her off of her stool and onto the ground. After the air returned to her lungs, she let out a small laugh and wrapped her arms around Happy in a tight hug.

"Lucy, Lucy! I did it! I turned Natsu into an S-class wizard!" the cat cried happy into the valley of her breasts, his words slightly muffled by the appendages before she sat up and rested him on her lap.

"So I've heard. Welcome back!" she said with a big smile, squishing Happy against her cheek.

"I missed you, Lucy! It was weird without you yelling at us!"

"I don't always yell at you." She mumbled stubbornly, tightening her hold around the cat to an almost painful pressure. "But I miss you too, Happy."

"What about me?!"

Lucy whipped her head up to see Loki charging for her, tears of joy streaming down his cheeks as he ran with self-made slow motion, causing many people surrounding them to sweat drop.

"Ehhhhh…" Lucy murmured awkwardly, not entirely sure what to make of the situation. But before Loki got within ten feet of the celestial mage, Natsu was suddenly towering over her, fists on his hips as he grinned widely down at his two partners.

"Yo, Lucy!"

"Hey, Natsu! Congratulations!" she called, her smile returning full force as she got to her feet and wrapped an arm around the Dragon Slayer's neck, the other still gripping Happy to her side. Natsu gave her a quick squeeze before tossing one arm around her shoulders and all but dragging her to the request board.

"Let's go on a mission!"

"B-but you just got back!" she cried, trying to pry herself out of his embrace. She had barely managed one of the harder missions herself in the last week (since she was severely behind on her rent and needed the money, thus her taking a job that was a little too hard for her, but she still go the job done and the reward paid in full). She was still recovering some of her injuries she had sustained during a particular attack that had her flying and crashing through tree after tree. She didn't even need to wonder if she would be able to handle an _S-class _mission, _again. _

"Yea, but now we can go on more exciting missions! That pay more, too!" he cheered, completely oblivious to the young woman's struggles.

"I can't _go _on S-class missions! I'm not strong enough." She whined more to herself than to him, but he still halted in his steps, turning to look at her with a mixture of emotions she wasn't really able to pinpoint. Those were her insecurities now. She _really _didn't feel like she belonged in their team, knowing that next year, Gray was most likely going to be the next S-class winner, and she would be the only one (aside from Wendy, who probably was strong enough) that wasn't strong enough to be S-class. Not to mention lower rated mages weren't allowed on S-class missions, so she'd most likely be going on solo missions unless Natsu decided to tag along. But she didn't want to hold him back. He had been waiting and wanting for so long to be S-class and to be able to do the big missions that he pretty much drooled over. And sure, Natsu was allowed to take her with, but it's like she said, she's not strong enough. Even on simple missions, Natsu has to separate from her to fight their enemy, and she still gets slightly banged up. Imagine the damage an S-class job would do to her, because Natsu would for sure go off and fight, unintentionally leaving her wide open.

Natsu continued to stare at her, seemingly pondering over her words with a serious expression before breaking out into a determined, confident grin.

"I accept." He stated calmly with a nod, now heading in the opposite direction of the mission board.

"Eh?!" Lucy cried in confusion. "What do you mean? What do you accept?"

"The challenge you just set yourself for." He said without turning to look at her, still dragging her—now by the wrist—at a steady pace past everyone towards the wide doors.

"What are you talking about? What challenge?"

"I'm going to help train you for next year. Now that I'm S-class, I can help prepare you for what to expect." He stated, throwing a smile at her over his shoulder.

"There's no way I can be S-class. First I have to actually be chosen for the exams—"

"Gramps said that you were a close call this year."

"Then not to mention that I'll have to beat Erza, Gildarts, Mirajane and now _you _before anyone else does."

"That's the point of training. We have a whole other year, we can definitely get you strong enough by then."

"And I can be your partner for the trial!" Happy piped in happily, Lucy now remembering that she was gripping the cat in her arm. "I got Natsu S-class, I know I can do it to you, too!" he said, raising a paw before letting it rest against her arm again.

"Isn't it against the rules to get help from an S-class wizard?" she said, trying to excuse herself from her two partners' crazy ideas.

"That's only for the exam itself. It isn't written anywhere that we can't help you before it comes around."

"What kind of training could you possibly think of for me? We have completely different types of magic!" she was now struggling relentlessly against the fire mage's hold. She had to admit that she was grateful and slightly flattered that he wanted to help her so much, but she wanted to be realistic. There really wasn't anyway that she could be an S-class mage, especially by the next exam. It just didn't seem possible.

"Oi, quit complaining, will ya?" Natsu called over his shoulder at the girl, who had given up trying to pull away and was now just letting him drag her, his tone coming off as playfully annoyed. "I told ya, I'm gonna help you! I might not be good with your spirit magic or whatever, but didn't that Capricorn guy help you last time? Ask him for that! I'm talking about muscle and physical workouts!" he gave an excited 'whoop', punching his non-occupied fist into the air, picking up the pace.

"But—"

"What'd I tell ya? No complaining!"

"Yea, Lucy! Don't worry! We'll make you an S-class wizard! We promise!" Happy chimed in, raising his paw again but this time to pat the blonde on the cheek.

She gave a faint smile, ducking her head slightly in hopes of hiding the small blush that had spread across her cheeks. She gave up trying to talk them out of it, knowing since the beginning of their argument that she was going to lose, due to their amazing stamina and persistence. She glanced down at the hand that held Lucy's wrist, his fingers surprisingly gentle, yet firm, making sure escape was impossible. She could practically feel her face grow hotter, even though the physical contact wasn't anything new. She hadn't really realized how he handled her so carefully, next to the way he treated Erza and Gray. Sure, he was still cautious and careful when handled them, whether kicking them around in a brawl, or carrying them when they're unconscious, but with her … she couldn't really put her finger on it. He was just so much more careful with her, like he was afraid that she would shatter if not handled properly, or that the slightly jostle would cause her to break into a million pieces.

He really was something else.

"Natsu … why are we at my apartment? I thought you were going to train me."

"We'll get to that later, but right now, I could really use some food and some rest. I'm exhausted!"

"Why didn't you just grab something from the Guild?!"

Yep, he really _was _something else …

**A.N. Again, another quick idea that ended up growing into a three chapter thing. Yes, there's two others to go, possibly four. I dunno. **


	4. Pushing On (Challenge Accepted pt 2)

Pushing on (Challenge Accepted Pt. 2)

Her body had never ached more than it did at that exact moment. She had been training with Natsu for the past couple months (and that was brutal in itself), and then Erza had decided that she would enjoy sparring with the young mage, and help her with her defensive and offensive moves. Natsu had at first disapproved of the idea, saying that he was the one that was training her, but then changed his mind and said that she should show Erza just how amazing an instructor he was. Unsurprisingly, she got her ass beat down, but apparently to the two mages, she lasted longer than most people.

Lucy just assumed it was because she spent most of that time running and that Erza wasn't exactly putting her all into the fight.

And since that day, she would spend every other day training with the Erza, and then the other days, she would spend with Natsu. Her trainers had given her one day off a week, Sunday, but Lucy didn't exactly call it a day off, since Natsu would drag her off to have some fun—whether it be a mission, or a fair, or the beach, but never something she would have exactly picked for herself. Or Capricorn would decide to pay his visit and work her magic down to her core so badly that her organs felt like they had turned to mush and would seep out of any opening they could find. She would have much rather spent her free day sleeping, and recovering from the brutal beat downs and attacks she got every day that week. But Erza had insisted that breaks were nice, but once you get down, it's harder to get back up, and that even one day could completely destroy everything they had worked for.

The S-class exams were coming up very soon, and it seems that her 'free days' were disappearing, being replaced with what she liked to call 'extra pain-day', since that was when she was worked to the bone against _both _Erza and Natsu. And even though she knew that they were holding back so they didn't completely kill the celestial mage, or render her completely immobile, since that would totally screw over their schedule, every hit still hurt. She didn't complain to her friends about it though. She knew every hit and every punch was helping her.

In fact, she was far more resilient to pain than she had ever been, and could actually hold herself without her spirits pretty well. But she still needed them …

She pushed the door to her apartment open, barely having the strength to close the door behind her as she made her way to her bed and flopped down onto it face first. She would have fallen asleep like that right there and then if her close hadn't smelt and felt so utterly filthy. Turning over onto her back and sitting up, she stripped her long sleeved sweater off and shimmied out of her yoga pants. Ever since she started training, she had started wearing clothes that covered her skin better. She found it easier on herself if she didn't have to see the leftovers of what her training had left on her skin.

Tossing the articles of clothing off to the side, leaving herself in her underwear, she stood achingly to her feet and trotted over to the bathroom to wash herself up a bit before crawling into cozy bed. She flicked the light on and made her way to the mirror, lifting her eyes to look herself over. Older bruises were turning yellow and fading back to her regular skin tone, the newer ones fading slightly but still bright purple and obvious. She had a few cuts from Erza's swords, her lips were a little cracked and chapped from licking the sweat off of them when she was working so hard. Her hair fell in strangled strands around her shoulders clung to her neck with dirt, sweat, and just a little bit of blood.

She knew that they weren't trying to hurt her; that was the farthest intention from either of her friends' minds, so she never really brought it up. And honestly, she was sort of proud of the scars and marks. It showed that she was really trying hard for what she wanted. Though she might be proud of them, she wasn't going to be showing them off to everyone at the guild, Natsu and Erza included. They didn't need to know about the marks. She didn't know what kind of reaction it would draw from them, but she had a feeling it would be leaning more towards the negative side.

Her training had started with muscle work and stamina, lifting weights and carrying heavy objects up hills (The objects consisting of rocks, baskets of fish, and Natsu himself). Then every morning, right as the sun was coming up, Natsu would barge into her room and tell her to start running. She would run for about an hour and a half before being allowed to stop and take a small break before working on her muscles again.

She thought that they could have started off with something a little closer to her level of strength, but whenever she tried to bring it up, her opinion would be shot down before she finished it. Natsu said it was what was best for her, even if it seemed harsh. And then Erza had come in, shooting her swords in her general direction, expecting Lucy to dodge and maneuver her way away and through the swords. To pass the red haired mage's standards, Lucy had to manage to land one hit, and her lesson would be over for the day, only for the next one to be harder than the previous the next day.

Also, Erza had insisted on teaching the celestial mage how to fight, when Natsu wasn't around, of course. Lucy had agreed, in what she assumed was a mentally exhausted, brain damaged, conscious coma. And that was when she began gaining bruises. Erza's punches and kicks were as brutal as they looked when she displayed them on Gray and Natsu. But Lucy was slowly adapting to the pain, learning how to take a punch and hold her ground, fighting back within a second's notice. She learned to dodge attacks and how to counterattack, she learned to block hits with her arms, she learned how to fight with only her legs. It was all horribly brutal and difficult, but it did exactly what it intended.

And then Natsu threw her a surprise and told her to fight him, all she had to do was get him on his back and she would pass that lesson. He never even fought back, just dodged. It took her a week to be able to do it. And that was when she actually went head to head against Natsu, magic and fists. Surprisingly, Natsu hadn't come out completely unscathed. Though most of the blows Lucy had received weren't directed at her, she felt every blow and hit that had been bestowed upon her spirits. Not to mention that her body took the toll of every magic hit _they _handed out. So either way, she was exhausted.

She didn't consider it abuse and harsh treatment, like most people would have. Especially since on her 'days off', Natsu would try and make it up to her by trying to show her a good time, to try and take her mind off of all the training. It was a sweet gesture, but not entirely necessary, since every step she took, every person that she bumped shoulders with, reminded her exactly of what she had gone through that week. She ached every day, even though she had grown used to it and hardly noticed it anymore.

She cupped her hands under the faucet and splashed water on her face, successfully wiping away the dirt and sweat from her skin. She didn't bother stepping into the shower, she just splashed the water on the decided area from the sink and quickly dried off so she could get into bed without the need of blow drying her hair and getting dress again.

She exited the room with an almost excited jog and jumped onto the bed, tugging the comforter over her aching body and closing her eyes. When she folded her arm under the pillow, she held in a pained hiss, the muscle of her forearm and elbow disagreeing with the position. But Lucy decided that she was in charge of where they were placed and how they were used, and set aside the feelings of discomfort easily. It wasn't until usually after the fights that she noticed the pain, since her mind set was always on the battle itself. Kind of like eating extremely spicy chicken; amazingly delicious when first eating it, but then painful a few hours later when you get heart burn. A weird comparison, but it was the only thing that would come to her sleep craving consciousness.

She didn't even have the strength to open her eyes when she heard her window sliding open.

"She's asleep already? I was hoping for dinner." She heard Natsu whisper to, who she assumed was, Happy. _Already?! It's almost eleven o'clock! _She wanted to snap at them, but decided to keep her mouth shut in hopes of keeping hold of the peaceful haze her mind had grabbed a hold of. She hoped that they would just stop in, check on her, and make their way out so she could fully engulf herself in her much needed slumber, but of course, they never knew what she truly desired at that time.

"Aye, you and Erza have been working her hard for the past couple days. I'm not surprised that she would fall asleep the moment she got home." Happy's voice chimed in. She felt Happy land next to her on the bed, curling up against stomach comfortably. She could feel his side press up against one of the less minor bruises, and even though at first it was slightly uncomfortable, his body heat and the slight rumble of him purring quickly disbanded the pain. "And it's not _that _early, Natsu." _Thank you, Happy. At least __**you **__know. _

"I guess you're right, Happy." She heard the pink haired Dragon Slayer agree, a yawn and a few satisfying cracks following directly after. She could just picture Natsu stretching his arms above his head, cracking the joints in his back and arms, something he did every night before he went to sleep. Don't judge. _He _was the one that had insisted on her crashing at their house when their sessions ran later than she planned. It was only natural that she would pick up on his nightly/morning habits. Not to mention that she's been within his presence for nearing on three years (ten years if you counted the Tenrou island incident), she was bound to pick up on a few things.

What she didn't expect was Natsu to lay down next to her, especially with such gentle ease that she barely even felt the bed shift. The only real hint as to him suddenly next to her was the increase in temperature against her back. She wanted to turn around and give him a piece of her mind, that she was allowed to have time to herself since she had been with him for pretty much 24/7 for the past couple of months, but then Happy crawled away from her stomach and slipped his entire body under the sheets, taking back his place at her side, but this time, against her actual skin.

His fur brushing against her stomach caused her to smile and hold in her giggles, but her body shook the slightest bit with mirth. She decided that she wasn't quite ready to be 'awakened' yet, so she pretended she was still asleep by shifting slightly and away from Happy's fur and onto her stomach, tucking her arms underneath her, against her chest. Even though every single movement was met with discomfort, she quickly adjusted and was able to settle in so comfortably she almost fell asleep instantly, but she had to remember that she currently had two other beings with her in bed.

"Natsu …" she heard Happy whisper, along with the comforter shifting as he pulled himself out from underneath it. "Lucy has bruises."

Lucy swore her heart stopped beating for a few seconds as a tense silence replaced what used to peaceful. She 'inconspicuously' wrapped her fingers around a part of the blanket, hoping to hold it over herself just in case Natsu decided to check for himself. And she severely hoped her didn't, since she was only in her_ bra and underwear! _

She felt the blanket lift up on the side that Natsu was on, but instead of pulling it off of her body, she felt him slip underneath it himself. The next thing she knew, she felt two new pressure's against her back. One was obviously Happy curling up on the spot just underneath her shoulder blades, on her middle back. And then an extremely warm arm draping itself across her lower back. And that's all it did. It didn't pull her closer to him, or prod at any of her injuries, it just laid there across her back.

"Yea, I know." She heard him whisper after what felt like hours of silence, finally replying to Natsu's statement.

They sat like that in silence for a few moments before Lucy decided she needed to speak up, to make sure that this didn't ruin everything that she had worked so hard for. She turned her head to face Natsu, not bothering to open her eyes.

"If you dare hold back on me tomorrow, I'll never make you flaming star ice cream again and I'll sic Aquarius on you." She muttered roughly before turning her head to face the other direction again.

Her reply was a quiet chuckle and a gentle squeeze around her waist before settling back into complete silence. And that was how she fell asleep. The heat of Natsu's arm was comforting on the bruises on her back, and Happy's vibrating body from his purring on her upper back lulled her to sleep.


	5. Never Give

Never Give

**This one's a little more lengthy, since I just wanted to finish this story in one go. So, enjoy!**

Lucy sat on the ground with her eyes closed, concentrating deeply with Erza and Natsu standing a few feet away from her, watching to see what she was trying to do. It was their last day of training, and Lucy had said that she wanted to show them something that she had been working on with Capricorn, something that she was sure would impress them.

The two S-class mages were very eager to see what the celestial mage and spirit had been working on, since they had been forbidden to watch, since the presence of another mage could possibly throw Lucy off track. That didn't seem to be the case now, as she sat lotus position in the middle of their clearing, gripping Aries' key in her grasp. Her brow was furrowed deeply, her lips pursed as she seemed to be focusing extremely hard.

Slowly, she stood to her feet and turned to face Erza and Natsu, a smirk growing on her face as she lifted her hand, palm outward in their direction.

"Wool Shot." She said in a steady voice, and instantaneously, a cloud of bright, puffy pink wool shot out of her palm, right at Natsu and Erza, who hadn't been expecting the attack. The pink fluff latched onto them and cocooned their limbs to their sides, holding them immobile as Lucy tried to suppress her giggles at watching them struggle against the comforting clouds.

"H-how did you do that?!" Happy cried out in awe, soaring down from his perch on his tree to prop himself on her shoulder.

"It's something Capricorn has been teaching me for quite some time now. It's kind of like Meredy's link magic, but instead of feeling what my Spirits are, I can use their attacks as my own." She said with a smile, lowering her hand slowly and breathing out slowly, the fluff seemingly disintegrating into nothing, releasing Erza and Natsu from their confines. But the moment the fluff disappeared, a severe sweat formed across Lucy's forehead, her body appearing to collapse within itself as she sunk to her knees. "But it sure does take a toll on my body." She laughed to herself, pressing a hand to her forehead as she tried to force herself to her feet.

"Do not force yourself, Lucy. You're done for the day anyway, take a break. You did very well." Erza said, nodding approvingly at her friend as she pressed a hand down on her shoulder, pushing her gently back down onto the grass.

"Yea! You did great today! And that was so cool!" Natsu excitedly exclaimed, bouncing up and down around the busty blonde, wanting to pull the girl into a tight embrace, but restrained, knowing that today had been extremely hard on her, for all of them really. Lucy hadn't held back the slightest bit against them, but they were extremely proud of her, since they too were pretty exhausted and worn from the day's work. "Does this mean you can use other attacks? Like Aquarius' or Taurus?"

"Well, sure, I could Aquarius', but not Taurus. I might be able to get his enhanced strength, but I wouldn't be able to use his axe, since it's still with him in the spirit world. I can only use energy related transfers." She said, falling onto her back with a relieved sigh as she stared up at the cloud above them. "But I don't think I really _want _to use Aquarius' again. The mental argument we went through before she let me connect with her powers was really … scary."

"Do you believe you're ready for the exams?" Erza asked, pressing her hands to her hips as she too looked up at the sky.

"I really don't know." She sighed, thinking about how much she has worked to get stronger. The contestants had been announced two days before, Lucy included on the list. It surprised her that she had made it, despite the reassurances of both Erza and Natsu, since she hadn't really done anything worthy of S-class as of late. She was positive that the training had been secret, but knowing the guild, they knew about it before it had been decided. She just hoped it had done its job. If she had to go against Erza, who said that she wouldn't hold back at all during the exams, she knew she would be exhausted both mentally and physically. And then if she had to go against Natsu, Mira or Guildarts directly after that, she wasn't sure she'd be able to survive. She'd most likely end up going into a meditative coma to gather up her magical energy, like her mother had told her about once when she was young.

"Well, you _should_ know! You're going to be awesome!" Natsu said, bending over at the waist so he was in her line of vision, blocking the sun from gleaming in her eyes.

"Rest up for the next couple days, but make sure that you still do you're stretches. We can't having everything we've worked for suddenly become useless because you're muscles decide to stiffen up." Erza said sternly, but there was a playful chime in her voice as she too bent over the celestial mage, further blocking her view of the sky. "Meet me at the Guild bright and early tomorrow; I'm taking you on a spa trip."

"Wha?!" Both Natsu and Lucy exclaimed, looking up at the red head in surprise and confusion.

"Erza, you don't have to—"

"Nonsense, you've worked very hard without complaint. I think you deserve a little relaxation without interruption." She said the last word with a glance up at Natsu, indicating him as the 'interruption'.

"Thanks, Erza. I'd love to." Lucy smiled, sitting up completely, holding back an aching groan before finally standing to her feet, with a little help from Happy and Natsu.

"Take her home and make sure she gets some rest, you two. I'm going back to the guild to get a last minute mission with Gray. I'll need the extra money." She said, muttering the last part more to herself than to the exiting trio.

^V^V^V^V^V^

Lucy had to say, she wasn't really that surprised that she would end up facing off against Natsu. She had been hoping she wouldn't have to fight him, since he knew all of her attacks and had learned how to counterattack them perfectly. The same with Erza. She had been actually hoping to go against Mira, or even _Gildarts, _because they didn't know her techniques, or even of her new abilities.

She shuffled awkwardly on top of the small cliff she had stopped at to take a break and freshen up a bit—mostly because Happy looked about ready to drop out of the air at any given moment. But the moment she stepped out onto the small ledge, she saw Natsu standing about twenty feel below her, in the middle of a small valley. He had his arms crossed over his chest, his feet spread wide with a wide grin plastered on his face as he looked up at her.

"Yo, Lucy!" he cried, raising a hand to wave at her, signaling for her to come down. She was extremely hesitant, wondering if maybe it was too late to turn around and find another opponent. But she knew that Natsu would probably take it as an insult, and that was the last thing she wanted to do. He had worked so hard to make her stronger so she could join him up at the top of the classes, and it wasn't his fault that she ran into him.

"Hiya, Natsu!" she called down, waving with as much enthusiasm as she could muster. Honestly, not seeing him for a whole day had been really odd, and she never actually realized how much she missed that mob of pink hair until it was out of sight. This was the second day of the exam, and since she and Happy had gotten lost and couldn't find a place for camp, they had camped out in a tree next to a stream. It hadn't been entirely comfortable, but it was safe, since the forest area that this year's exam was taking place at had rather … exotic creatures roaming around. The exam spread into a second day thanks to the fact that it took longer than planned to get to their destination and the exam had started later in the evening. Master had decided that surviving the night was added to the exam at the last minute, leaving a lot of people in a panic since most of them had no idea what the area would entail.

"What're the chances, huh? Come down here!" he called, jumping up and down in place, flailing his arms as if to make sure she knew exactly where he was. Lucy just smiled; her body relaxing slightly at his at ease attitude.

"Happy, mind giving me a lift?" Lucy asked the exhausted cat who was lying on the ground, panting, from flying all day.

"Aye … sir." He said, still panting. He got to her feet and sprouted his wings again, lifting into the air and hugging Lucy around her shoulders before easing her into the air. They slowly descended from the cliff, but a few feet before they touch landed, Happy's transformation disappeared, dropping them both to the earth below.

"KYAAAA!" Lucy hollered as they both plummeted, hitting the soft grass with muffled thuds, kicking up a lot of dirt in the process. Lucy coughed into her fist as she sat up, the dirt clearing enough for her to see that Natsu's stance had tensed, her jaw hanging open with concern.

"Uh … are you guys ok?" he called over to them, wanting to move to help them but stuck to Gildarts challenge of not moving an inch against his challenger.

"We're good!" Lucy called over, standing to her feet a little unstably. She bent down and picked up the sleeping Happy, walking back over to the bottom of the cliff and laid Happy on a jutting out rock. She patted his head lightly, hearing a quiet purr emitting from the blue haired feline at the contact, before turning around and facing Natsu again. She gripped her arms behind her back as she slowly made her way towards her temporary rival, trying to hold his gaze but failed as she dropped it back to the ground.

She stopped a few yards away from him, finally lifting her eyes to his, finding him grinning with a joyfully excited glint in his eyes.

"Ready to get this started?" he asked, cracking his knuckles as he continued to grin at her.

Lucy closed her eyes, breathing out deeply to calm her racing heart, trying to grab at the confidence she had held the day before when they were boarding the flying spacecraft that got them there. A few seconds past, the cold sweat that had formed across her brow vanished along with her nerves, leaving a determined, confident spirit mage in its place. She gripped her keys tightly, making sure she had every single one of them in her hand just in case she needed to summon one without looking for the particular key, or to use their powers for her own.

"I am when you are. Don't hold back on me, Natsu." She said, spreading her feet slightly just in case she needed to move at a moment's notice.

"Don't think I will. I want ya to be S-class with me and all, but you're gonna have to prove you're … I dunno, worthy or something. Get ready, Lucy," he bent at his waist, hands gripping into fists at his sides, looking ready to lurch forward. "Cause I'm all fired up." And with that, his fists burst into flames, pushing him into action.

"Taurus!" Lucy called, jumping out of the way of raining flames just in time. The earth crumbled beneath her feet as the bull spirit arose from it, letting out a loud 'MOO' of excitement. "Watch my back! I got to get Natsu down!" she ordered as firmly, yet as politely as she could.

"You got it, Ms. Lucy! I'll protect you're beautiful body with my very life!"

"It's not like I'm gonna kill 'er!" Natsu exclaimed, soundly rather offended that the spirit was insisting that Natsu was going to do her fatal harm. Sure, he wasn't going to hold back, but he wasn't going to _kill _her!

Natsu fired large balls of flames at the bull spirit, who merely deflected them with his axe, occasionally hitting them back at him. Trying to focus on his attacks, he failed to notice that Lucy's eyes were closed as she ran around, avoid any attacks that got past Taurus, gripping her keys firmly. Her eyes snapped open, narrowing up at Natsu, who finally took note of the girl rounded behind him.

"Lion Brilliance!" he called, using her mental link with Loke, who wasn't in the exams this year, to shoot the brilliant light at Natsu. Natsu smirked, twisting around in the air to face the light and making a large fire wall in front of him. It deflected the impact, but what he hadn't been expecting was for Lucy to launch herself into the air through the light and _through his fire _to kick him in the stomach. They started to plummet, Lucy's foot still implanted on his stomach, intended to crash him into the earth. He smirked at her strategizing, but knew how to counterattack it. He gripped her ankle with both hands, kicking his leg up to connect with the back of her head.

"_Agh!_" she cried out, bending over from the impact. Natsu took the advantage and pulled himself out from underneath her foot, flipping and pressing his foot into the place between her shoulder blades, grabbing onto one wrist to hold her in place before they hit the earth. At least, that was what he had intended to happen, but not everything goes as planned.

_"Wool Wall!" _she cried, whipping her free arm out in front of her, a cloud of pink fluff shooting out just before they hit the ground. They hit the cloud with a small 'poof', the cloud rejecting Natsu's form, forcing him to bounce off the cloud while Lucy sunk into its comfort. He managed to twist himself in the air so he landed on his feet, lifting his head to see the cloud disappear and Lucy to be standing there, proud and confident, but there was obvious pain on her face. She grabbed onto the shoulder of the arm that Natsu had held captive during their plummet, clenched her teeth and yanked, holding in the pained scream she wanted to release and instead let out an agonized hiss.

She had never been so happy to have taken those self-medical lesson from Wendy than she had right then. With a dislocated shoulder in a fight, that could have easily led to her demise. She released her arm and lifted her head to see that Natsu and Taurus were battling it out a few yards away from her. Every single ray of flames directed towards her was hit away by Taurus, screaming profanities and claiming that no further damage would become of her absolutely beautiful body.

"Thank you, Taurus!" she called, extremely grateful for the protection so she had time to fix herself up a bit. She gripped her keys again, flicking her wrist quickly. "Open the gate of the maiden! Virgo!"

When Virgo didn't appear next to her, she started to slightly panic, wondering if maybe she was running out of magic energy already even though she hadn't really used all that much. Maybe using their attacks from her own body was taking a larger toll on her than she thought. But before she could completely freak out, a large mote began to form around the area that Taurus and Natsu were sparring.

"Taurus! Move back!" she called out in enough time for the spirit to react, jumping back to land a few feet in front of her just as the earth underneath Natsu crumbled.

"Whoa!" He cried, disappearing in the crater, out of Lucy's sight. Virgo burst from the ground beside Lucy, the same unemotional expression present as it always was.

"Thank you, you guys! Go on back!" she exclaimed joyfully, flicking her wrist again, causing both spirits to disappear at once. Her body wanted to collapse, her body taking the effects of each of their attacks, but she held steady, stumbling her way towards the crater. But then thought better of it. For all she knew, Natsu was waiting for her to peek into the whole so he could pull her down in with him, or for him to suddenly attack. She smirked deviously, thinking up a new plan easily.

She gripped Gemini's key, summoning the twins silently as she kept her eyes glued to the hole. She knew she couldn't really talk, since Natsu's super enhanced hearing could easily pick up on her conversation. At least she really didn't have to say anything, since Gemini had picked up on her thought pattern once they transformed into her, which had never seemed more useful that it did at the moment. Lucy grabbed onto her whip, preparing to use it when need be. Gemini eased their way to the crater, peeking around the wall.

"GAH!" Natsu cried out as he suddenly launched himself from the crater, knocking Gemini off of their feet and onto their back. Natsu was about to start throwing his fists of flames again, but Lucy was never one to allow harm to befall upon her spirits if she could do anything about it. She cracked her whip forward, hitting its target perfectly by wrapping around Natsu's limbs, catching him off guard. "Wha—" his cry was cut off as she jerked him downward, hitting the ground with a large cloud of dust. But before she could feel the pride of victory, the whip was yanked forward, causing her to stumble to her knees before she stood back to her feet, tugging against it like a leash.

She had gotten the upper hand, and she wasn't going to let it go without a fight. She pulled with all her might, feeling Natsu fight against her resistance so strongly that she started to tumble forward. The dust cleared, allowing her to see that he was spinning in the air, reeling her in. Before she could release it with her own will, the handle was ripped from her grasp and whipped toward Natsu, who hadn't realized that would be the result of his actions. The handle smacked him in the side of the head, ceasing him in his spinning from the shock of the unexpected blow. But he was quick to recover, grabbing hold of the handle himself and unwinding himself within a few seconds.

Lucy watched as he gripped her whip in his hand tightly, smirking deviously at her from across the clearing. She knew that she had little magic power left, and without her whip, it would be difficult to attack him herself. She knew better than to run in for a close range battle with Natsu, since his flames could burn her to a crisp in a second flat.

She had one last plan, but it was extremely risky and not very well thought out, and could easily lead to either her success, or her failure. She didn't even really have to hesitate on it, deciding the second the plan formed that she would do it. She still had fight in her, and she wasn't going to back down. She gripped her keys tightly, forming the mental link that she needed and prayed that she wouldn't give her too much trouble just this once.

As she did this, she charged forward at an amazing speed towards the pink haired Dragon Slayer.

"Lucy, Lucy, Lucy, don't you know any better?" Natsu chimed in, hands on his hips, shaking his head with a smile before returning to his battle stance. "I hope you're ready for the burn!" He said, igniting his entire body in flames. He was slightly stunned to see that her pace didn't slow down or falter whatsoever, her face remaining concentrated and stoic.

When she was just a few yard from him, he narrowed his eyes and pulled his flaming arms back.

"Wing Slash of the Fire Dragon!" He called, whipping his arms forward, sending his flames directly at the blonde mage.

Lucy couldn't wait a second more, knowing it was now or never. She brought her arms up and over her head with alarming speed, and with that, the water that had resided in the soil beneath them arose from the grass, dousing Natsu's flames and putting them out. Not letting any opportunity vanish, she jerked her arms to one side and whipped them forward, sending the water directly at Natsu's still inflamed body. The water didn't put it out completely, but it shrunk it down a good amount. Enough that Lucy took her chance and lurched forward, pulling back her fist and throwing it forward to connect with the side of Natsu's face.

The force of the punch made Natsu bend backwards slightly, his arms flailing to keep his balance. Lucy pulled back her fist again, ignoring the throbbing in her knuckles to throw it forward again, this time into his stomach, making him fold over. He pulled himself back up and threw his own series of punches, connecting with her shoulder, face, stomach and neck a multiple of time. But with each blow, she shot right back at him with her own attacks. Shifting her weight in the air, she kicked her leg upward, connecting underneath his jaw and making his head jerk backwards. She slammed her other foot down on his chest, forcing him back down onto the ground hard enough to made it collapse in slightly.

But before she could throw another attack, he grabbed onto her ankle—Lucy taking notice of how his face held no emotion whatsoever—and pulled it to the side and swiping his other arm against her other leg, succeeding in knocking her onto her back. Unable to get up since he still held her ankle hostage, she used her free leg to try and kick at him, yet again failing since he grabbed a hold of that appendage and pinned it down, too.

Lucy attempted to sit up, wanting to use everything she could to fight him, but found herself not even able to lift her arms, her muscles disobeying her and only giving her severe aches. And then he was there, sitting on her stomach with his fist preparing to deal her the final blow that would probably knock her unconscious.

Not gonna happen.

Still having use of her legs, she thanked the lord for her flexibility and kicked with all her might upward, hitting him in the back of the head with enough force to make him falter in his attack. It was enough. When he sagged forward, she forced her head to come up and connect with his, even though her muscles screamed in protest. While he was distracted, she pulled herself out from underneath him, attempting to jump away from him and out of his attack range, but … that wasn't going to be the case.

A large ring of fire sudden encased the two of them, enclosing them within its scorching heat. He was on his feet again, his face still expressionless, but looking tense as he looked ready to launch himself forward.

She knew she didn't have anything left in her to keep going. Her muscles ached from just standing, she felt empty without her magic power, using Aquarius' water control abilities really leaving her drained and beyond. Not to mention that the previously dislocated shoulder was feeling like it was coming out again. But she wasn't going to give up in this scenario, not when he has the upper hand. It felt like she was giving up because she had nowhere else to go, like she would be backing out of fear.

Again, not gonna happen.

"Roar of the fire drag—" but she didn't hear the rest of his call as she threw herself backwards, feeling the fire ring's flames lick at her skin, trying to draw out a scream, but she bit it back and just let herself flying through the air a few feet. When she hit the ground, she rolled with it, trying to make sure she didn't sustain any more injuries. Grass stained, rocks dug into and stuck in her skin and dirt coated ever inch of her body as she finally came to a stop.

Fighting against the pain and the aches, she shakily pushed herself onto her knees, biting her lip when a scream tried to tear through her throat. Kneeling on one knee, the other pressing against her chest while her hands pressed against the earth, she opened one eye to look at Natsu. He was standing there, preparing to breathe in.

"Roar of the—"

"I lose." She cut him off with a hoarse, scratchy whisper that she could barely hear—but he seemed to understand loud and clear—dropping her head in a sign of defeat.

The air was silent as her words sat in the air. She was fighting her body's desire to topple over and sleep for a _very _long time, but it was slowly starting to overtake her body. Her arms were shaking so violently of trying to keep her steady on one knee, she was sure that the earth was slightly trembling form it. She dropped her other knee, her shoulders and head sagging lower at the slight relief. The black ring was starting to fuzz on the edges of her vision, her mind becoming a blur …

-v-v-v-

Natsu watched in surprise as Lucy suddenly threw herself through and out of his fire ring in the middle of his attack. He had taken notice of her shaky stance, that her eyes were beginning to shut without her permission and figured that one more blow would finish the match. But he honestly had not expected _this _at all. He quickly extinguished his flames, watching her body soar through the air before hitting the earth with a sickening thud, and then tumble and roll for a few more feet.

She didn't move. It looked like she wasn't even breathing, and he began to panic slightly. His mind that had been in battle mode, knowing a challenging rival when he saw one, he sort of … forgot, it was Lucy he was fighting for a few moments there. But now, he was dropping out of his battle high, and saw his partner lying on the ground a few yards away from him. Her skin was black, red, blue and purple with smoke emitting from all over. Her skin looked torn and shredded, most likely from her tumble, green staining her arms and legs, and her blonde hair had grass, dirt and leaves woven into the usually clean locks.

Then, she moved. It absolutely shocked him to see her pushing herself back up, determination still shining in her eyes—well, one of them, since the other seemed to have swelled shut. It appeared that the battle wasn't quite over yet, and though it pained him, it didn't end until one of them was out and unable to get back up.

_Just finish it, Natsu. _His mind ordered him as she lifted her head to look him in the eye, that determination still glimmering there. He began to breathe in, feeling his stomach inflating, ready to blow her away.

"Roar of the—"

"I lose."

He froze. After a few seconds, he let the air he had been collecting for his attack seep out slowly, returning to his normal stance to see that she had her head bowed in defeat, her hair draping over her face so he couldn't see it.

_I lose. _The exact same thing he had said to Gildarts on the Tenrou island incident. In fact, she was in the same position he had been in.

He just continued to stare at her, unable to move his gaze away or move his feet. He saw her arms trembling, no, her entire body trembling, slightly teetering to the sides. She dropped her other knee, a sound of what resemble exhausted relief escaped past her lips. But when her elbows began to bend, her body starting to fall to the side completely, he was knocked out of his frozen trance and lurched forward, catching her before she hit the ground again. He turned her over so she was lying on her back, her upper body lying across his lap and arms.

He tried to be extra careful, seeing the damage up close was worse than seeing them from farther away. Though she was worse off them him, he gave a slight smile at the fact that he didn't look too perfect himself. He had bruises, scratches, burns and cuts all over him. And let's not bring up the fact that Lucy was actually quite well known for her right hook. He had taken several of those blows during their spar—no, battle—and a really hard kick that made him feel like his head could have been taken clear off.

No, he wasn't anywhere near perfect condition, but again, she was even farther from that.

He saw her eye flutter open a crack, her brow twitching at the work it took to do such a little act. Her brown orbs stared up at him and he gave her a wide grin that he hoped would ease her tense form.

_I lose. _The words rang through his head again.

"Nah, you pass." He said just as her eye closed again, her body relaxing in his hold completely. He sighed out; listening to her heart beat and breathing go back to something close to normal. He smiled again, shaking his head as he let a chuckle slip out of his mouth.

Oh yeah, she was definitely S-class worthy, in his opinion at least.

He gently gripped the arm that didn't have a large purple ring going around the shoulder, pulling it up around his own while wrapped and arm around her waist as he stood to his feet. Looking around, he found his blue furred companion, still asleep on the cliff that Lucy had left him on. Being extra careful not to jostle Lucy's body, he made his way over to the cliff.

"Oi, Happy." He said loudly, not really worried about waking up the stellar mage he was carrying, since he had a feeling that not even a dragon's roar could wake her up. He watched the cat's eyes slide open groggily before he yawned and sat up, rubbing his eye.

"Natsu …" he mumbled in slight confusion, looking at his surroundings. Why was he in a forest … the exams! His eyes fully opened, wide awake now as he took note of the unconscious mage that his master was carrying. "Lucy!" he cried, sprouting his wings immediately and fluttering around her, not sure if he should touch her or not.

"She'll be okay. She _is _Lucy." Natsu chuckled quietly. "Mind giving me a hand with her so we can get her to the camp? It'd be best if Wendy helped fix her up soon as possible. She _did _pass, after all."

(_)(_)(_)(_)

"Lucy! _You did it!" _a voice screamed to her, but she couldn't exactly pin point what direction it was coming from. She could only stand there on the sandy beach where she had battled Gray, the other contestant that passed. The said Ice mage was splayed out on his back a few yards from her, beginning to sit up and rub his head as he smiled at her. She just stood there, her arms sagging at her sides as she looked around her in slight confusion.

She was exhausted. All she wanted to do was go and climb into her nice warm bed and sleep. But, she won something …? Her mind couldn't put anything together, she was just soooooo tirreeeddd.

"You did it! You did it! You did it!" a voice cried just as a small blue form crashed into her chest, easily knocking her back and onto her rear. It jostled her tail bone and older wounds slightly, but she ignored it in favor of looking down at the furball in her arms. "You did it, Lucy! You're S-class!"

"S … class?" she murmured in confusion, then her eyes widened. She was S-class … "I did it? I passed?!" she exclaimed, a smile growing on her face as she looked around.

She was suddenly scooped up into strong, warm arms, being squeezed non to gently into a smoldering hug. She knew it was Natsu when he buried his face in the side of her neck, breathing in her hair—something he had picked up on doing a while ago. She wrapped her arms around his torso, completely forgetting that Happy was being squeezed uncomfortably between them.

"Luuuucccyyy! You're S-class with me!" the pink haired man hollered in her ear, which would usually bother her, but right then, she couldn't care less. "Let's go on a mission now!"

"Wh-wha?!"

**And that's it for this story, folks. I know, really short ending, but I don't know how they end the S-class exams, since we never got to see what the final challenge would be or what really partook once it was completed. So, I made it short and sweet. But the rest … gawd, I'm sorry, I can NOT write fight scenes. *Facepalms* anyway, onto the next story! **


	6. Of the Mind

Of the Mind

Lucy sat at the bar, cupping her chin in her hands while propping herself up by the elbows. A sorrowful expression was etched across her features; her lips pursed but were quivering quite violently, her wide brown eyes bubbly and tearstained. She let out a longing sigh.

"Oh, how I wish that Natsu were here, and not off on a dangerous mission where harm could befall him!" she sighed dramatically, throwing her head back and slapping the back of her hand on her forehead. "_Oh!" _she squeaked in shock as she was suddenly lifted into the chillingly embrace of two strong arms.

"Lucy, forget about that flaming fool! Be by my side forever!" the dark haired ice mage pleaded, holding the blonde celestial spirit mage against his bare chest.

"Gray, no! I cannot! For Natsu is the only one that could ever hold my heart!" she cried again, pushing weakly against his chest.

"The idiot knows not of what he has! Give me your heart, and I will cherish it forever!" Gray pleaded, closing his eyes and puckering his lips as he slowly lowered his head towards Lucy's.

"What do you think you are doing, you hollow-headed hooligan!" a new voice entered, drawing the embraced and the embracing mages' attention to the door. Natsu stood there, bare-chested with his scarf fluttering dramatically around his shoulders.

"Natsu!" Lucy cried, eyes sparkling as she stared over the shoulder of her captor to her dearest beloved.

"Remove your hands from my woman, you frosted fiend!" the pink haired Dragon Slayer hollered before lunging forward, his fist connecting with the side of Gray's face, sending the ice-alchemist soaring in a sparkling, dramatic manner. Natsu was quick to scoop up the fallen blonde, holding her princess style while looking dramatically off to the side, the wind picking up yet again to rustle his hair and scarf. "Are you harmed, my love?"

"Not while you are here." Lucy sighed, cuddling into his heated chest.

(_)(_)(_)

"Hey, Lucy, Mira's making that face again." Natsu whispered to his partner, who was seated next to him at a table in the guild. Lucy lifted her eyes from her book to look at the beautiful Mirajane who stood behind the counter, face completely red with steam coming out of her ears as a mouth hug open with the happiest smile someone could have. She had her hands clasped together under chin, swaying back and forth as squeals slipped out of her open mouth.

"Eh, she's in one of her fantasies again. Just leave her be." Lucy said, shrugging before dropping her gaze back to her book, but not really reading the words that were printed.

"What do you think she's day dreaming about this time?" he asked, stabbing a slab of his flaming meat with his fork before stuffing the whole piece into his mouth.

"Probably some drama-romance thing, judging by the drool slipping down her face. You can never be too sure with Mira's imagination, thought." Lucy said with another shrug, flipping her page to skim over the words of the book she had read more times than she could count.

"… Think we could try and get Waren to give us a peek at what she's thinking about?" Natsu offered after a few moments of silence.

"Let's move, before she snaps out of it."

**What time is it? My clock says, "Lol, it's summerish o'clock in the morning, you no need to know what hour it is!" I'll probably wake up later today and see this online and think … what the fuck is this and why isn't it cannon? Super short, but you know, whatevs.**


	7. Picking Sides

Picking Sides

Lucy cracked one eye open, stirred from her deep, peaceful sleep thanks to an intense heat that was pressing against her back. Her entire body was coated in sweat despite the fact that she was only wearing a pair of underwear and a tank top without a blanket, and she didn't even have to guess the reason why. Her dear, dear, beloved, fire Dragon Slayer husband was in the spot directly beside her, or more like splayed across _her side of the__** bed!**_

She turned her head to face the still sleeping pink haired man, giving a tired glare at his eased sleeping expression. He was laid out on his back, all the blankets on his side—though she didn't particularly need them that much anymore—and his entire top half was lying on her side of the bed, his head taking up most of the pillow and forcing her onto the edge of their mattress. Then let's not add the fact that Happy had decided to join them for the night—Carla kicking him out of their nest because he had been annoying, leaving him one place to sleep. He had grown slightly over the years since they first met, and with his limbs spread out wide like a starfish where her feet were supposed to be, he took up a good portion of the bottom of the bed … ON HER SIDE!

She has no idea what it was with these two, but they both seemed to love her side of the bed more than she was willing to really fight for. But the time that she had offered for Natsu to take her side instead and they switch places, he apparently couldn't sleep very well, which confused the hell out of her since they technically slept on that side _every night! _One night, when she had had enough of sleeping in a ball on the edge of the bed, she had grabbed her pillow from underneath his head and moved to the floor, taking an extra blanket from the chest at the foot of the bed. When she had just about to start to fall asleep, she heard Natsu shift around, grumble her name and then sit up in a panic, wide awake and alert. She had merely mumbled his name with a "shut up and go back to sleep, weirdo" before trying to find that sleepy haze she had lost thanks to her husband's sudden awakening. He, of course, questioned why she was sleeping on the floor and implied that she was 'the weirdo' a good couple of times as he dragged her back up onto the bed by her shoulders.

And now, she was back to where they had started again. She stretched one foot out, bumping it accidentally against Happy—who grumbled, then began to purr as he unconsciously nudged his face against her foot, trying to get her to pet him—and tried to nudge him onto Natsu's side or possibly off the edge. She needed to stretch out since she couldn't be in a ball for very long before it got uncomfortable for her bulging belly. And soon, she wouldn't be able to roll up at all, and she had no idea what she'd do then.

"Natsu …" she nudged her shoulder against the arm that was thrown across her pillow, attempting to wake him. "Hey, can you move over a bit? Pleeeaassseee?" she mumbled to him, beginning to feel the fatigue being pregnant came along with hit her with full force.

Oh, he shifted alright. But he shifted _closer _to her.

He continued to snore on, as if he hadn't moved whatsoever, as his entire side pressed against her back, pushing her even closer to the edge. She was about to let out a frustrated groan, and possibly push him off the bed—since it seems that it wouldn't affect his sleep very much—when he began to move again. She stiffened slightly when he turned onto his side and tossed an arm around her waist, a hand pressed to her stomach succeeded in pushing her against his toned chest. In other words, he was spooning her.

She could feel him worming his way more onto his side, but was taking her with him in the process. They ended up stopping in the middle of the bed, both of them technically on their sides which was good enough for her. She was about to try and shift and get into a more comfortable sleeping position, hoping that he had just been helping her gain the space she needed so much.

But she should have known better.

His grip tightened around her waist—but was firmly careful with her growing abdomen— wrapped his legs around hers to keep them from rolling up, and his nose was now pressed into the back of her neck. Lucy pouted slightly, knowing that he tended to get very clingy and more cuddly then usual when he was on the verge of unconscious, but still found it slightly unnecessary. Sure, she loved cuddling with him, but she wished that he would _remember _when he did it so … adoringly. Yes, she tried to keep from too much PDA while at the Guild, since that place looked for anything to tease people about, but that didn't mean if he wanted a hug, or for her to sit in his lap, she wouldn't defy him. He was clingy-ish during the day—as was to be expected from a Dragon—but during the night, he got a hundred times worse.

Lucy was quickly losing the will to try to stay awake and get some space for herself. And when Natsu planted his mouth onto the skin right between her shoulders—not necessarily kissing, just his lips resting there—she let the fatigue completely engulf her.

And she probably slept better that night than she ever had since she met the idiot.

**Sorry for the lack of updates, I've been drawing like crazy for my own manga. And this was inspired by my ****_freaking dog pushing me out of my own bed!_**


	8. Separation

Separation 

**Watched Schindler's List and I guess I got a bit … inspired, you could say.**

Lucy's eyes snapped open without warning, breathing in a deep breath of the chilled morning air. Without moving an inch, her eyes quickly searched their room, making sure everything was in place and nothing had been disrupted during the night. She could feel the hot arm of her husband around her waist, his hand pressed against her abdomen firmly, yet gently, to press her against his bare chest. The pressure of his forehead against the back of her skull and the puffs of warm breath against back of her neck told her that he had at least slept in a somewhat normal position that night, different from his usual splayed-out-everywhere style.

She slowly lifted her head from the pillow that he decided they should share, even though he has one of his own on his side of the bed, to take a complete 360 look around the room. Everything seemed normal, but she couldn't shake off the negative feeling that lingered over her mind. Like something bad was going to happen, very, very soon. She wanted to get up and make sure the rest of the house was in order, but judging by the tightness of Natsu's hold, he wouldn't let go of her without a fight, even in his sleep. She sighed out, knowing that she should be used to this behavior by now, but still couldn't quite shake off the annoyance of his clinginess. Of course, she knew what she signed up for when she became mated to a dragon; possessive behavior, over protectiveness, and lots and lots of kids. According to Natsu, dragons breed more than rabbits. At least she didn't have to lay eggs.

She managed to prop herself up into a somewhat sitting position, which of course disrupted the pink haired man next to her, only for him to tug her tighter into him and lose the little ground she had gained. He rolled over onto his back, dragging her with him to rest her on top of his chest, his hand going to the back of her head in order to force her head down to his shoulder. She huffed out a light laugh through her nose when he nuzzled the side of her neck lovingly.

"What're ya doin' up s'early, Luce?" he slurred out, his voice slightly muffled by her shoulder.

"It's not _that_ early, and I just woke up." She said, turning her head to nudge her nose against his cheek, letting her lips trail over his jaw slightly. She continued to repeat that cycle when he growled in approval, burrowing his face into the juncture of her shoulder. But when his hand managed to slip under the hem of her night gown, she ceased her actions. "But it is _definitely _too early for _that._" She laughed lightly, bringing her own hand down to ease his out from under her gown.

"Any time is mating time, Luce." He murmured in slight complaint, bringing his hands to sit just a little lower than her waist, cupping her ass slightly.

"Not when our son is in the room." She whispered back, smirking at him when his eyes widened and quickly sat up, setting her in his lap so he could look at the bedroom door. At the door stood the three year old, light pink haired boy, staring at his parents with wide, curious brown eyes.

"Mama, papa?" he called out tiredly, bringing a fist up to rub at his eye. "Thewe scawy noises coming fwom outside." He mumbled, bring his light blue blanket up to cover his mouth.

"Come here, Iggy." Lucy called gently, shifting to get out of Natsu's lap—but of course his hands held her hips in place—so she leaned over his knee towards the edge of the bed. The boy scurried over to his mother's side, reaching up to grab onto her hands, allowing her to pull him up onto the mattress and into her lap.

"I told you, don't call him 'Iggy'. Igneel, Luce, Igneel. It's a proud name!" Natsu chanted, pounding a fist to his chest before lowering his gaze to his son, who was burrowing his face in his mother's chest. "What's up, buddy? There're scary noises coming from outside?"

Igneel turned his head to look up at his father, nodding quickly. Natsu merely chuckled and ruffled the boy's hair.

"Probably Gajeel causing a ruckus, you know how he gets this time of year." Lucy said, hugging the tiny boy to her chest and kissing the top of his head gently. "Poor Levy." She added with a quiet murmur, just as an afterthought.

"Ya, I know. Still, I'm curious." He stated with a grin, looking towards the door with an excited sparkle in his eye. "Stay here, Imma go check it out." He said, scooping an arm under Lucy's knees and one behind her shoulders, holding her princess style so he could get up before setting her back down on the mattress.

"Natsu, I don't think—and he's gone." She sighed, watching the fiery trail her mate had left behind on his fast pace to get out the door. Shaking her head, she looked down at the little boy in her arms, using her thumb to lift his chin so she could smile sweetly at him and kiss his nose. "It's okay, honey. What kind of noises did you here? Talking about what you're scared of usually helps, you know." she said, sitting back and crossing her ankles to make a little ring for Igneel to sit in.

"Dey wewe weawwy scawy, mama! Bang, bang, and scweaming!" he cried, flailing his arms around eccentrically, trying to put emphasis on his words. Lucy narrowed her eyes slightly, staring pass her son's shoulder to the comforter on her bed. Screaming …? Sure, banging was common around this time of year, since Gajeel would walk around the streets clanging his iron arm against anything he could find while sleep walking … but screaming?

She turned her head to peek at the door, listening intently for any sounds. The air was deathly quiet and still, which was definitely unusual in their house, what with Natsu constantly making noise with every footstep. Speaking of which, why couldn't she hear him? Ever since she became his mate, she had gained a few dragon qualities, like exceptional hearing, smelling and sight, and she could usually hear even the faintest sound inside her house. So why couldn't she hear Natsu whatsoever?

She shifted to the edge of the bed, propping the boy onto her hip as she slowly stood to her feet, goose bumps running up her legs when her feet touched the cold wooden floor paneling. She slowly inched her way across the room and towards the door, shuffling her feet silently over the floor. Feeling another chill run down her spine, a sense of protectiveness surged through her, causing her to shift her body so she was between Igneel and the door, also resting a hand on her very slightly bulging stomach.

Something was definitely wrong.

Placing Igneel on his feet and gripping his hand tightly, making sure he was behind her legs at all times as she hurried across the room to the dresser. When she reached the furniture item, she reached up to the top and grabbed onto her key ring, gripping her fingers around the forty eight keys to keep them from clanging together loudly.

"Stay behind me, alright, Iggy?" she whispered almost inaudibly to her son without releasing her gaze on the door, knowing he could hear her perfectly well. He squeezed her fingers in reply, his hands heating up similar to the way his father's would when he was preparing to use his magic. She wanted to scold him for even thinking that he was allowed to fight, but knew that if it came down to it, she wanted him to be as safe as possible.

They slowly began to inch their way back to the door, it nearly taking them a full minute to reach it. Natsu should have been back by now, and it was making Lucy increasingly nervous, but she held strong, preparing to use any of her spirits' attacks. **_(A.N. It's like the story for the S-class exams I wrote, she's older so she can use her spirits' attacks as her own as long as she has her keys.) _**Just as they reached the door, Lucy reaching out to open it fully, it slammed open. Lucy narrowed her eyes and raised her palm, preparing to scream out 'Lion Brilliance', but froze when she saw the familiar shade of pink hair stand before her. She hadn't even heard him coming, so that means he definitely didn't want to be heard by _anything. _

_"Natsu …" _she whispered, pulling Igneel with her as she crossed the few feet to her husband, reaching out and grabbing onto his arm just as he turned to face her. His face was pale, and deathly serious, his eyes having shrunken down and slitted into their dangerous shade of Brice green. _"What's going on?" _she mouthed to him, her hand tightening around both of the limbs she held in her hands.

"We've got to move, _now. _I'll explain on the way." He whispered, grabbing onto her wrist as he turned around and shut the door, making sure to flip at three of the locks. Lucy held onto Igneel's hand as tightly as she could as Natsu dragged her by her wrist across the room and to the large walk-in closet. She knew immediately what his plan was.

When he released her wrist, she nudged Igneel behind her, backing him into the wall, watching as Natsu ripped one of the large stones that they had designed the floor with out of the ground, setting it aside. He sat on the ledge, reaching out to them to signal that he'd lower them down. She pushed Igneel forward, keeping her eye on the bedroom door to make sure that no one was coming as Natsu gripped his son's wrists, lowering him down into the hole.

"Lucy." He whispered, drawing her eyes back to him. She grabbed onto his wrist with one hand, resting her other palm against the ledge to help ease herself down safely. When her bare feet felt the chilling water of the underground tunnel they had built, she released his wrist.

"Hurry." She whispered, more to herself in hopes that it would make her husband rush faster. Whatever was coming, she didn't want to touch him. She grabbed around in the darkness, her eyes adjusted to a view that was similar to night vision so she could find Igneel's hand and latch onto it, then quickly turning her eyes back up to the hole they had entered through. Natsu grabbed the rock, and held up sideways under his arm, dropping right down into the water with a quiet splash. Then, he gripped the rock on both sides, jumping and slipped it back into place, the latches on the bottom of it immediately hooking onto the hinges they had attached to the ceiling of the tunnel. "Natsu, what's going on?" she still whispered.

"The village is under attack. They're taking all the dragons, their mates and the kids. I don't know where, but they had everyone gathered in town square." Glancing down at Igneel, he leaned in to Lucy's ear to make sure only she could hear the last bit. "Some are dead, and the air reeks of blood. We've got to get out of here."

Lucy merely nodded, reaching out to take Natsu's hand and still holding onto Igneel with an iron grip. As they started to jog down the dark tunnel, she turned to look slightly at her son.

"You don't let go of my hand, do you understand me, Igneel? Do _not _let go of me." she ordered in a stern voice she only used on rare occasions with her son.

"Yes, mama." He whispered, gripping her hand just as tightly. After that, they ran in silence, all either too scared to say anything, or too concentrated on making up a plan on how to get out of the village safely. And that was when they reached the end of their tunnel, the only thing remaining was a latter that went up to a manhole lid up above them.

"Where does this lead out to again?" Lucy asked quietly, just in case there was someone up above them to overhear.

"Downtown. I can't guarantee that it's all clear, cause the tunnel is messing with my sense of smell. But I don't hear anything that's close by." He said, pausing momentarily. "Follow right behind me." he ordered, just as sternly as Lucy had. He grabbed onto a rung of the latter and began to climb, Lucy following closely after with Igneel hanging off of her back.

Natsu reached a hand up and eased the lid up the slightest bit, just enough to let him see out onto the cobblestone roads. He listened intently, trying to hone all of his senses on anything that would signal someone approaching. When he could hear, see or smell anything, he forced the lid up and slid it to the side as quietly as he could, climbing out. He turned and knelt down to take Igneel from Lucy, and then quickly grabbed onto her hand, helping her out of the hole as quickly, but as gently as possible. The moment Lucy was out of the hole, Igneel latched himself onto her hand, watching with wide, fearful eyes as his father placed the manhole lid back in place.

He rose to his feet, his muscles tense as he tried to smell for anyone in any direction, but all the buildings were blocking any breeze there might have been that day, making it impossible for him to track a scent from a direction. Choosing the quickest route that would lead them to the forest that surrounded their village, he grabbed Lucy's free hand and began to usher his family down the streets, encouraging his mate when she began to pant, her hand going to caress her abdomen.

"We're almost out. Just a little longer, okay, Luce?" he asked as gently as he could, wanting to slow his pace, but knew that he couldn't take that risk. When they came to the street that would have led them right into the forest if they took a left, Natsu screeched to a stop, his eyes narrowing and teeth clenching in anger. Lining the end of both streets, were men covered in black uniforms, with large bulking helmets and large guns at hand. Natsu pushed his family behind his back, trying to back them up onto the street they had just came onto, but when he turned to glance over his shoulder, he saw that they had cut them off there, too. They were surrounded.

And now Natsu realized why he couldn't track them or smell them at all in his village; their suits didn't give off any smell, and didn't let their scent seep out into the air. In other words, they were scentless.

"Come quietly, or we shoot." One suited man order, at the word 'shoot', all the others raised their guns, aiming them at the Dragneel family. Natsu turned so his back was to the wall of the nearest building, pushing Lucy and Igneel behind him as he snarled and growled at the men in warning. "I repeat; come quietly, or we shoot."

And then there was a click noise from all the guns, red lights glowing from on top of each gun. Natsu snuck a glance down at himself to see a few red dots wavering over his bare chest. But when he glanced back at Lucy and Igneel, he saw that they were nearly covered head to toe in red dots, and he knew exactly what that meant. Without looking up at any of the men, he nodded his head once, showing that he would comply … for now.

One line of the three moved out of the way, allowing the other two to force the family down the street, towards town square. Natsu had his arm around Lucy's shoulders, Igneel resting on the hip that was between the two of them, his arms wrapped tightly around his mother's chest while still gripping her hand. His heart was racing inside his chest, feeling fear and anger stronger than ever before. He wanted to fight his way out, but he knew that he wouldn't be able to take all of the men out, and the ones that he'd miss, would shoot his mate and kid; things he could _not _lose. They were the most important things in his life, and without them, he would shrivel up and die. No, literally. If both of them were to die, his heart wouldn't be able to handle it, and it would give out on him.

They were slowly gaining on town square, and that's when he could hear all the ruckus that was happening. People were screaming and crying, there was the sound of gun shots and commands being yelled out. The smell of blood was so fresh in the air, he felt tempted to pinch his nose shut, but refrained, not wanting to remove either of his hands from his son or his mate. As they turned the corner that would lead them into the town square, he saw that there were hundreds, maybe thousands, of suited men, trying to organize the chaotic mess of dragons, mates and children.

When they reached the group of people, a few of the men that had followed them there, shoved them towards another man roughly. A man that was screaming, "Men to the left, women to the right! Men to the left, women to the right!" over and over again. And that's when it happened.

The man that had been screaming the directions, grabbed onto Lucy's arms and attempted to yank her from Natsu and Igneel's grasp.

"Natsu!" She screamed, trying to latch onto her husband and at the same time shake off her son's iron grip around her hand, not wanting to risk him falling from Natsu's hold or get lost in the ground if he were to be taken along with her. "PLEASE! DON'T TAKE THEM FROM ME!" she pleaded to the man that was still trying to pull her away.

"LUCY! LET HER GO!" Natsu roared, trying to pull her back to him, but was failing since more men had gather around them and were trying to pry them apart. _"GET YOUR HANDS OFF OF HER!" _He held onto her wrist with an almost painful grip, Igneel still holding onto her other hand.

"Mama, mama!" the boy was crying hysterically, trying to keep his hold on his mother's hand, as she had instructed him to not let go of, trying with all his might to keep her with them.

"_Women to the __**right**__!_" the man said with finality, smacking Lucy in the back of her head with his fist, causing her grip to waver enough that they were able to rip her from her family's hold.

_"LUCY!" _Natsu screamed, trying to reach for his mate, but she was pulled deeper into the crowd of hysterically crying women, disappearing from his view, but he could still hear her calling for him and Igneel.

_"MAAAMMAAA!" _the pink haired little boy screamed, crawling up to wrap an arm around his father's neck while reaching his other hand out to the direction she had disappeared in.

"To the right, or I shoot the boy!" the man ordered, holding a gun close to the small boy hanging off of Natsu. Natsu lurched away from the gun, both arms now going around his son to cup his head, attempting to block all view of the boy. They were shuffled into the large group of male dragons, mates and children, the females just a few yards away from them but still out of their reach.

"Lucy! Lucy!" Natsu continued to cry out once the attention of the man had been turned away from him and his son, jumping up and down to try and see of the heads of the taller men to look for the blonde hair of his mate. But his voice was lost in the shouts of the other men calling out for their loved ones, vice versa for her.

"MAMA!" Igneel turned his head into his father's neck, tears raining down his cheeks to land on his father's skin. "Mama, mama, mama …" he continued to chant, shaking his head side to side each time he said the word.

Natsu hugged his son with a tight grip, turning his own head to hide in the boy's hair, tears raining down his own cheeks just as heavily. Even though she was just in the other crowd, just yards away, his chest was feeling as if it were being ripped from the inside out at the knowledge that he couldn't go to her, that he hadn't been able to keep her next to him. That he couldn't protect his mate like he was supposed to.

^V^V^V^V^

**(A.N. Now I'm just gonna skip the whole camp, thing and just go right back to the reunion, since this has gone on longer than I intended. And don't spam on the fact that I'm rushing through this and with unrealistic details, kay?)**

He could smell her. She was nearby, and alive. And there were others with her, just like there were others with him. But that didn't matter to him anymore, she was alive, and so nearby.

They had been separated for nearly a whole year, nearly a whole of year of not knowing if she was alive or not. A whole year of knowing what she was enduring, but not being able to be there to help her and rescue her. He heard from one of the other men at his camp that had been there longer than the rest of them, telling them that everyone did hard labor, would be treated with punishment at the slightest mistake, and that the women would be … used, for the officers' sick needs. He prayed that she had been untouched, due to her condition, but he wasn't going to hold his breath about it.

They were finally free. King Makorav had found out about the Dragon Camps, and had put a stop to it immediately, releasing everyone that was alive from its nightmare hold. He and the few men that wanted to go and search out their mates, had banded together and tried to track down the female camp, going solely on what they heard from other officers and their slightly dulled sense of smell.

But now, he could smell her, clear as crystal. It was like his senses had been revived at full force. He could hear her panting breath and the slightly uneven pace of her footsteps, he could smell her beautiful peach and vanilla scent, even under the layers and layers of dirt that were guaranteed.

And now, he could see her.

She was clear across the field that they had tracked them to, a good distance away, but he could see her vibrant blonde hair as clear as day. Igneel, who had been slumbering on his father's back, stirred from his sleep when he too smelt the familiar scent of his mother. But Natsu didn't wait for his son to fully wake up. He grabbed onto the arms that were wrapped around his neck and broke into a full out run, leaving the other males in his dust as he sped towards his mate.

"LUCY!" he cried out, making absolutely sure that she saw him as he raced in her direction. He saw her turn her head in his direction, and even from the distance they were at, he saw the overjoyed smile he loved sprout across her face, tears spilling down her cheeks like rivers as she too broke into a run, carrying a bundle in her arms.

She was exactly as he expected; dirty, grimy, sweat-coated, and still the most beautiful creature to ever walk the planet. Her hair was shorter and more choppy, just brushing below her chin, and was weaved with grass and dirt. Her skin was tan, dirty, bruised, scarred and slightly ripped in places, but still managed to look as frail and flawless as the day she was born. And her eyes; they hadn't changed at all. They were still the gorgeous brown that he had dreamt about every night for the past nine months, still the liquid chocolate that he wanted to get lost in.

Once they reached each other, they threw one arm around each other, both of them trying to keep their hold of something else. Igneel, having finally awoken completely, released his hold from around his father's neck to slide down onto the ground, freeing Natsu's other arm so he could completely engulf his mate in a hug. He burrowed his dirt coated face into her neck, tears leaving a clean trail down her cheeks as they dripped onto her shoulder and drenched the sleeve of the baggy shirt she was wearing. He continuously kissed the side of her neck and down her shoulders, then trailing back up to kiss along her cheeks, jaw and then finally to her lips. He gripped her waist tightly, pulling her up against his chest and kissed with all the passion he could muster, not caring in the slightest that their son was witnessing the ordeal. Igneel had latched himself to her leg, crying and yelling for her attention.

Natsu finally pulled away from her enough so she could look down at the now three and a half year old Igneel, bending down with her when she engulfed the child in her own one armed hug. He wrapped both arms around them, pulling them both to his chest in a large group hug that had been long overdue in his opinion.

And then, curiosity got the better of both the boys, as they stared at the bundle cradled in one of her arms. She was still trying to get a handle of the tears that were streaming down her face, her voice coming as bubbling nonsense as she tried to tell them how much she missed them and loved them.

"Boys … meet Nashi." She said quietly after calming down enough to get her voice under control, but the tears continued to rain. She shifted so they could look into the hole she had pried open with one finger, pulling it down and over a tiny head of light pink tuffs.

Natsu's heart skipped a beat at the sight of the little child in his mate's arms. It was obviously a girl, judging by the incredibly thick black eyelashes and the rosy, plump red cheeks. On top of her head were curly, uncontrollable light pink tuffs of hair, the same shade as Igneel. And then, she slowly peeked her eyes open to show the exact same brown eyes of Lucy, the chocolate pools swarming with warmth and curiosity as she stared up at the pink haired boys hovering above her.

And she broke into a large, toothless smile, giggling and laughing as she squirmed around under the blanket, finally freeing her arms as she reached them up to Natsu. Lucy rose the baby girl a little higher as Natsu lowered his head, allowing the baby to slap her tiny chubby hands against his face and stretch his cheeks out a little.

"S-she made it through all of this?" he asked, still slightly in shock as he stared down at the little girl, instantaneously loving her.

"It was definitely hard, but no one found out about her. After she was born, all the women in our housing kept her hidden, telling the guards she died at birth so they wouldn't go looking for her." Lucy explained lightly, planting a kiss on the girl's forehead lovingly. "She cried only twice. _Twice, _Natsu. When she was born, and when she saw me with these."

Natsu watched with wary eyes as his mate shifted the child into one arm, using her now free arm to pull her sleeve off of her shoulder, showing two bullet wound scars along the line of her collarbone. Natsu's eyes slitted dangerously, clenching his teeth as he lifted a hand to rest on her shoulder, trailing his thumb over the scars. He didn't ask, already knowing that it was most likely punishment for something she had done. He had seen a man in his own camp get a similar treatment.

Lucy pulled her shirt back up again, looking over Natsu's shoulder to see Levy reuniting with Gajeel, there little boy hugging her leg similar to the way Igneel had done to her. She smiled slightly, remembering how Levy would continuously tell stories about her little boy, since now they seemed to have found the time to do be together without their males jumping in with their own edited versions of the tales.

Speaking of Igneel, he was staring down at Nashi with a wide-eyed fascination, smiling toothily when she turned her giggling attention to him.

"My sister?" he asked his mother, pointing at the girl. Lucy merely nodded, leaning slightly against her mate, who immediately hugged her shoulders closely to himself. He smiled even wider when the little pink haired girl grabbed onto his finger and brought it to her gummy mouth.

"I'm so happy that you're safe. Both of you." Lucy whispered, pecking Natsu on the mouth quickly.

"You had no reason to worry! I mean, this _is _me. There's no way Igneel or I would have died in there! We're Dragneels!" he called proudly, banging his fist against his chest.

"Way to make the mood, Natsu. Really."

**I had absolutely no idea how to end this … **


	9. Treatment (The Silent Kind)

**GAHHH, INSPIRATION FREAKING EVERYWHERE! This one was inspired by the episode where we learned when Happy hatched from his egg, but more with the way Natsu reacted to what Lucy said. The whole "Just shut your mouth for once!" thing gave me an idea that's a little … angstyish? Basically a rewrite of my own. **

_Treatment (The Silent Kind)_

Lucy smiled as she watched Natsu get up from his sulky position, hoping that he would go and settle things with Happy. She knew that Happy wouldn't stay mad for too long, but the sooner they mended this ridiculous little feud, the better. So when Natsu suddenly turned his head slightly and gave her a dark glare, she was slightly shocked.

"Just shut your mouth for once." He growled in a low tone before turning and stalking away from her. Lucy had to admit … that stung a little bit. She hugged Plue closer to her chest as she stared after the Dragon Slayer's retreating form, her lip quivering slightly. He's yelled at her before, but it was more comically, like he was frustrated with something she had done. But this time … it was different, and she couldn't quite place her finger on it.

Yes, she knew that she could get a bit bossy, but she wouldn't particularly call ordering him to go and make amends with his best friend a reason to snap at her. Keeping her head ducked slightly, she turned and walked over to the spot she had left her notebook, picking it up with one hand while the other held Plue tightly to her form.

_Just shut your mouth for once. _Okay, so she _did _talk a lot. She was well aware of that, but she didn't think she was _too _bad …

No. Natsu was just being a jerk. She decided as she stood up completely straight, her brows narrowed slightly as she, too, stalked off in the direction of town. Whatever she said to upset him, she didn't mean any real harm, and he should have known that any teasing that comes from her was never meant to be taken seriously.

"Stupid Natsu, if my _talking _is so annoying, why drag me out to go fishing with them. If there's someone that should keep their mouth shut, it should be him! He's the one that's always getting us into more trouble with all his stupid blunt comments." She muttered to herself, kicking a mushroom that had been growing in her path right out of the ground and into a bush. "Fine. If he wants me to 'just shut my mouth', that's just what I'll do!"

The blonde celestial mage glared at the scenery in front of her, stomping her booted feet on the dirt so violently, it could be mistaken for an earthquake. Plue had disappeared from her arms when she started the little rant that shifted back and forth between being out loud and her inner thoughts.

She reached the cobblestone pathway that led into town, and slowed her pace so she wouldn't get strange looks from people on the streets. She figured she'd go home for most of the day and try and get over the writer's block she was experiencing, and then maybe go out shopping for a bit. Might as well, since apparently she had nothing better to do.

-()-

The next morning, Natsu Dragneel was walking down the streets, his arms crossed behind his head. After he had fixed things up with Happy, they had feasted on the fish for most of the afternoon until both of their stomachs were three times their size and then napped until around dusk. It was a new day, and thanks to the big dinner they had the night before, he had plenty of energy to wear off. So, in other words; grab the team and look for trouble.

But first, breakfast. And the second best thing to Mira's cooking was the food Lucy kept in her fridge.

So, with Happy at his side and a boisterous holler, he launched himself at her bedroom window. Landing in a not so graceful slump on the little ledge on the outside, he threw the windows open and the two partners tumbled into the small bedroom.

"Lucy! Mission time!" he yelled as he danced in a circle in the middle of the room, Happy flying in circles around his head. But when he got no response, he ceased in his cheers to look at the bed. The small blob underneath the blankets hadn't moved at all during all the noise they had caused, which was odd because usually she would be screaming at them to keep it down at such an early point in the morning. He strode towards the bed and propped his fists on his hips as he looked down at the figure. Why did she have the blanket pulled up over her head? She must be suffocating under there.

"Lucy!" Happy cried, launching himself onto the bed, right on top of the figure. But what neither of them expected was for Happy to sink _into _it.

"Happy! You crushed her!" Natsu yelled in a panic, grabbing onto the blankets and ripping them off of the bed, Happy being thrown into the air with them. "Oi! You okay—" he cut himself off when, instead of seeing his busty blonde partner, they saw one of her plush, plump pillows.

"Lucy turned into a pillow!" Happy cried, horror written across his face as he landed beside the pillow and gently prodded it.

"Don't be ridiculous, Happy. Lucy didn't turn into a pillow!" Natsu laughed, grabbing onto the plush cushion and holding it at eye level an arm's length away. "It smells like her though. She must've already headed to the guild." Natsu reasoned, tossing the pillow over his shoulder as he turned back to the window. Happy quickly followed after his foster father, throwing himself out the window before Natsu so the Dragon Slayer would have something to rescue him from the drop.

-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-

Ok, there was definitely something off about Lucy, Natsu decided. What led him to believe this was that when they had reached the guild, they had walked in on Erza cornering the blonde by the mission board, the girl sweating nervously. She apparently had planned on going on a solo mission—_without telling her team about it. _They were partners after all, he always told her when he was going out on one—albeit, usually as he was racing out the door with the missions at hand. But he learned through Erza that Lucy would have been long gone on the mission she hadn't stopped the girl to question her.

The next hint was that, she hadn't greeted him. At all. She had said her hello to Happy with a gleaming smile, but her eyes hadn't even glanced in his direction. In fact, she seemed to be avoiding him like the plague. As they were walking out of the Guild, all of them already deciding that they were accompanying her on the mission, she had walked on the opposite of Erza's luggage cart than him, chatting quietly with the Ex-quip mage. Now, he wouldn't have jumped to this conclusion if whenever he tried to start up a conversation, she'd just keep walking silently, or turn to talk to a different teammate.

When they got on the train, Erza and Gray had taken one of the benches for themselves, talking about strategies and what they would need to do once they reached their destination. Which had him sitting beside his blonde partner, hunched over in pain. She still hadn't even looked at him. She just sat on the farthest end of the bench from him, his entire side pressed against the wall as she looked out the window. So, through his suffering, he eyed the celestial mage, observing her posture.

She was tense. He could see that with the way her shoulders were stick straight and her hands had veins slightly popping at her tight clenching. And her eyes were different. Usually, you could read what she was feeling and thinking like it was a glowing billboard with an audio-lacrima screaming what her mind was conjuring up. But now, they were just brown eyes, guarded and empty as she stared out the window. It sort of creeped him out, how she was so different than what he was used to.

He decided that as soon as this torture device stopped moving, he'd ask her what was up. He couldn't really think of anything he did to piss her off. He and happy hadn't broken into her apartment—except for this morning, but she wouldn't know about that—and other than when they had dragged her out fishing, he hadn't seen her till they met up at the guild. So, it had to have been something he had done before his fight with Happy … or Gray said something to try and turn her against him.

Meanwhile, Happy sat between the two of them, looking back and forth between his two best friends. Though Erza and Gray seemed unaware, he was practically breathing in the tension coming from the blonde celestial mage. He had pretty much sensed it since the moment they had entered the guild that morning, but it didn't appear to be aimed at him—since she had greeted him with the same genuine warmth she usually held. And it was plain as day to anyone that her hostility was held for Natsu, but she was hiding it rather well. It wasn't that she had glared at him, or anything like that, it was just that she was pretty much acting like … he wasn't even there. And it was confusing the blue Exceed. Also, she wasn't quite as talkative as she usually was, or as noisy. She spoke rather quietly when she was conversing with Erza or Gray, and it was rather idle chit-chat, as if to keep them from being in complete silence.

Maybe she wasn't feeling well …? Maybe she caught something while they were down at the river and was blaming it on Natsu for dragging her along? But then, she should be angry at himself, too. It was a fifty-fifty decision between the two of them to make her come, so if that was the reason she was angry, it was also partially his fault. But he had a feeling that wasn't the case.

When the train finally came to a stop, Natsu was trying to push his aftermath motion sickness effects aside as quickly as he could, wanting to clear this issue as soon as possible. But Lucy was on her feet within a second's notice, picking Happy up in her arms and walking off with Erza, leaving Gray to deal with the unmoving Dragon Slayer.

"What did you _say _to her?" Gray asked the pink haired male, grabbing Natsu's wrist and merely dragging him across the wooden flooring towards the exit.

"'dunno…" Natsu mumbled, doubting his reply was heard since all that could really be heard from him was continuous groaning and the sound of his body scrapping across the floor. Once they were off the horrible device, Natsu forced himself to his feet, brushing aside any leftover unease. "What's the big deal, dragging me around like that?! Were you trying to splinter my face?" Natsu growled at the ice mage.

"Not like it would damage it anymore than it already is, fire-idiot."

_"Whaddya say, _you disgusting popsicle?!"

"I'm _saying _that you're face is messed up, if it wasn't clear enough, slanty eyes."

"You wanna go, ice princess?!"

"Bring it!"

But before the two could even raise their fists, Erza was there in the middle of them, pressing her metal-clad hands against their faces to keep them separated.

"Now boys, this isn't going to get messy, is it? We already have a mess we're being _paid _to clean up, why not save our energy for then. Hmm?" Erza said in a tone that was less than suggesting, and more 'you-better-stop-fighting-or-else-I'll-make-it-so- no-one-will-be-able-to-identify-your-bodies-when-t hey're-found-at-the-bottom-of-a-rivine."

"A-aye." They said in unison, arms suddenly being thrown around each others' shoulders as they smiled at the threatening redhead. Natsu glanced over her shoulder at Lucy, who had her back turned to them and was seemingly talking to Happy, her smile still in place. _She hadn't yelled at them for fighting? What is up with her?_

-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-

Lucy realized that she might be overreacting, now that she had time to think about her actions throughout the day so far. But she wanted to wallow in her own sulking attitude at least for the rest of the day. She couldn't really understand why, but Natsu's comment had really … hit her, and _hard. _She felt really insulted for some strange reason. But hey, at least he was now seeing what she was like when she 'shut her mouth'. She couldn't exactly go the whole mission without talking _at all; _that would draw suspicion. And she was slightly surprised that Erza and Gray hadn't picked on her hostility, but Happy had already brought it up with her when Erza had gone to split up the fighting duo.

She had just brushed off his accusations, saying that it was nothing and that it was just one of her moods, but she knew that she wasn't being exactly very convincing. But either way, the Exceed dropped it for the time being and just sat on her shoulder, hoping to help ease the obvious conflict going on inside her. She had just given him a sad smile, patting him on the head before trying to start up a new conversation—about fish—to turn his attention away from herself. It had been effective, and she now held a deal that once they finished the mission, she would buy Happy whatever fish he would like.

But then, they reached their destination, and Erza told them the plan that she and Gray had formulated on the way there.

"The bandits are in the center of the building, we're going to come at them from the two entrances. Gray and myself will travel through the west quarters to reach the room, and Natsu, Lucy and Happy will go through the west. I'm relying on your sense of smell to find where you need to go, Natsu." Erza said, looking into the onyx eyes of the Dragon Slayer.

"Right. I'm fired up!" Natsu said, punching his hand with a confident smirk. But while he put this on, he examined Lucy's expression, only to see that she was staring down at the rough dirt map that Erza had drawn in the ground with a stick, her face relatively expressionless. Happy hung off of her right shoulder, his head a mere inch from hers. What Natsu wasn't able to see was that Happy was using his tail to rub Lucy's arm comfortingly. It somewhat surprised Lucy, how Happy was being so supportive of her behavior, even though he had no idea what it was that was upsetting her.

"Alright. Let's move." Erza said, nodding at her comrades before turning and sprinting off in the direction of the entrance that she and Gray were to take. The ice mage quickly followed after, leaving three partners alone.

Lucy had stood there quietly for a few seconds before turning and walking off for their own entrance without a word, her head staying ducked down. Natsu stared after her with confused eyes before quickly going after her, stopping when he was a few feet behind her. But then, she picked up her own pace again, putting an extra few yards between them. Now, Natsu was just getting irritated. He picked up his own pace, following after her as she began to climb the stone brick wall that lead to the balcony that was their mode of entrance.

Happy, not wanting to risk Lucy slipping thanks to her high heels and shaky hands, tightened his grip on her and sprouted his wings, lifting her off of the wall and onto the balcony. Once her feet touched down, he pulled away and patted her shoulder gently before going back down to retrieve Natsu.

Natsu took the lead, since he was the one that was supposed to lead them through the labyrinth of hallways with his heightened senses. And Lucy followed behind, but at a noticeably large distance. And whenever Natsu stopped walking, trying to let her catch up—even though he knew that she was doing it on purpose—she would stop without a word, her head still ducked down.

Lucy, again, knew that now she was just being childish, but the anger had seeped away and now she was only feeling the hurt of his words. She figured that that one sentence affected her so much was because … she valued what Natsu thought of her. And she supposed that with him implying that she was too talkative and never shut up, her mind had forced herself to believe that she was just annoying, or a nuisance. Irrational, but, she was a girl, and she tended to over think things.

"Luce, you gotta keep up with me. I don't want you to end up getting too far behind and getting lost." Natsu said, his words bouncing off of the walls as he stopped yet again for her to catch up. Silently, she kept walking until she stood about a foot away from the Dragon Slayer, her head still ducked down so her eyes were shielded by her bangs. He clenched his teeth, fighting to urge shove the hair up and out of her face so she was forced to show him her eyes. He wanted to ask what the problem was but … he didn't know how to do it. He knew that if he flat out asked her "What's wrong with you", she wouldn't take it very well and would actually have more reason not to talk to him.

His ear twitched slightly when he heard her and Happy mumbling quietly to one another, and despite the fact that they were still close together, he couldn't really make out what they were saying. His eyes connected with the Exceed and Happy gave him an anxious, awkward stare, transferring his look between the two of them. He figured that Happy was trying to signal for him to talk to her, fix whatever it was that was bothering her.

He stopped yet again, but this time turned to face Lucy, crossing his arms over his chest just before she bumped into him from his immediate halt. She faltered in her step, bouncing back slightly, but once she got her footing again, she turned so her body faced the wall, head still downcast.

"What's up? You haven't said a word to me all day!" He asked, his fists pressed against his hips as he narrowed his eyes, his focus entirely on her. Until this was resolved, he knew that he wouldn't be able to put his all into the fighting, which would go noticed by Erza and he'd rather not have a confrontation with the woman about his actions. Plus, he wanted to get over this strange bump that they seemed to have hit in their friendship. But it definitely wasn't help with the fact that she wasn't responding to him at all. "Oi, look at me when I'm talking to you, will ya?" he demanded irritably.

The air was tense between them as his words hung in the air, both of them unmoving. Then, Lucy lifted her head, her empty, emotionless brown eyes boring into his.

"What's the matter with you today?" Natsu asked, searching her eyes for anything that would tell him what was up, but other than the slight anger that pooled in her orbs at his words, there was no change. "Will ya talk to me, already? I can't fix what I did when I don't know what it is!"

"Sorry. I thought you would have liked me keeping my mouth shut for once." She said, her words as emotionless and monotone as her eyes. And it sent chills down his spine. He narrowed his eyes in confusion, searching her face before her words really sunk in. His own words ringing through his mind. _Why don't you shut your mouth for once? _

"T-that's what this is about?" he asked, his eyes widening and jaw dropping slightly. She averted her eyes again, stepping around him to continue on in the direction that had been traveling. "Lucy, c'mon." he pleaded, quickly following after her and trying to step into her path, but she would merely continue to walk around him. "Look, I'm sorry, okay?"

At his words, she stopped walking, but didn't turn to face him.

"What for? You were only telling me what you were thinking." She said, and though her tone did hold the same, dull, monotone as before, there was also hurt lingering behind her words.

"I was just frustrated. Don't take me so seriously when I get in one of those moods." He said, walking towards her and trying to step around her to look her in the eyes, but she side stepped, cutting off his access.

"You looked pretty serious." She said, her voice completely monotone now, the hurt not being shown as clearly now.

"I told you, I was angry and I took it out on you. I'm _sorry. _Okay? You just … said something and it triggered a memory I'd rather not have thought about." He explained, finally succeeding in stepping around her and grabbed onto her shoulders to keep her in place. "I didn't mean it, I was just upset." He said in a gentler tone, dipping his head slightly to try and see her face.

She looked up slightly, her eyes now full of mixed emotions, and while most of them weren't entirely positive, he didn't see any anger or resentment. And when she gave him a small smile, he couldn't help but grin back at her.

"It's okay. I just … overreacted a bit and took your words a little too literally." She said with an embarrassed smile, a blush spreading across her cheeks as she scratched the back of her head.

"I'll say! It ain't fun when you don't talk!" he said, all the tension suddenly disappearing from between the two as he threw his arm over her shoulder and pulled her into a side hug. He laughed boisterously while she merely giggled quietly, the blush still prominent on her feature as Natsu pressed her even closer to his chest.

"You liiiike each other." Happy said, lowering himself down to their level having kept himself out of range in case their little argument got ugly.

"Now's not the time for that comment, you stupid neko!" Lucy cried, the blush growing even redder. "Remember! I can just 'forget' to buy you that fish!"

"Don't be so mean, Lucy!" Happy cried, but still smiled at the normalcy that had returned to their little trio.

"Well, don't tease me."

"Nah, we're still gonna tease ya." Natsu said with a smirk, ruffling her hair playfully. "Good to see you're back to normal, Lucy!"

**Gah, I had an idea about how to end it, but then I forgot about it! Man, I need to stop writing these things in my head as I go to sleep at night, I end up forgetting crucial details by morning. Sorry for the OOCness of everyone :/.**


	10. Ownership

_Ownership_

_Okay, Lucy, just stay calm and don't make any sudden movements. Just slowly, slowly inch your way back towards the house. It doesn't look like they've noticed you yet. _Lucy thought to herself as her breath caught in her throat. She gripped the rope, that had her pet bull, Taurus, on the other end, with an iron grip, not wanting to risk him getting separated from her. Because all over her field, was a herd of scaly dragons. And like she had thought, it didn't appear that they had noticed her quite yet, and she hoped to escape to the small little farm house she was renting before they did happen to see her.

She had noticed that Taurus hadn't been in his stall (which was next to Leo's—her tame, pet Lion) and had instantly assumed that he was out in the fields, him always escaping there in hopes of seeing any of her neighbor's female cows. Her assumption had been correct and she had tied the rope to his leather neck-harness, scolding him for wandering off without warning her. The bull had affectionately nuzzled his snout to her breast, making her shake her head with a giggle and smacking him lightly on the shoulder.

But on their trek back to the house, quick moving shadows had passed in front of the sun, surprising her since there wasn't a single cloud in the sky that day. Then she had heard the loud thumbs of something hitting the grass, turning to see that there were, in fact, five dragons standing in her field. When she had began renting the house, the landlady had warned her that Dragons were quite common around those parts. But Lucy had shook off the warning, assuming that the idea of them landing anywhere near her house was as likely as her head sprouting wings and flying off of her body. Clearly, she had been wrong.

She had heard stories of the creatures, knowing that not _all _meant harm to humans and that they were actually quite majestic creatures. But she didn't want to stick around and find out if these were Puff the Magic Dragon's buddies **(A.N. It's an old song that my uncle used to play for me—look it up!)**. Taurus was cooperating as usual, taking slow and steady steps alongside her, but she could tell that he was trying to get her behind him since he was taking _far _slower steps than her. Damn her animals and their protectiveness, she loved them and didn't want any harm to befall on them, but they _all _had the tendency to linger close to her whenever she went out, and protective from any danger whatsoever. Taurus and Leo mostly. Aquarius, her pet piranha, was the only one that seemed to loathe her with a passion, nearly taking her fingers off whenever Lucy tries to feed her or clean the tank.

She could hear the commotion coming from the barn, all the animals most likely having heard, smelt or sensed the Dragon's presence, and were trying to break free. She couldn't have that happening. She didn't want to risk them getting out and setting the Dragon's off, since the creatures were well known for snatching cows and livestock from farmer's fields.

Just then, her ankle caught on something and she tumbled back, muffling her surprised shriek by tightening her lips together. Instead of hitting the ground, her head and back smacked against something hard and … scaly. Her eyes widened as she shifted her gaze to look to her side without turning her head, seeing that she had, in fact, fallen against the side of a dragon. It was lying down on its stomach, its tail curled out in front of it slightly and she put together that she had tripped over the limb. She swore her heart stopped beating in her chest as her limbs froze and tensed up, a cold sweat breaking out on her forehead.

But the dragon wasn't paying her any mind. Its focus was on Taurus, whose rope had slipped out of her hand during her fall, who was having a face off against the beast. The scaly monster stared at the bull with half lidded green eyes, seemingly bored or just disinterested. Lucy's heart, yet again, seemed to stop when the dragon lifted one of its giant paws, three of its taloned fingers curled into its palm while one claw stayed out. She swore that Taurus was going to be ended right there and then, but instead of being sliced open like she thought, the dragon had merely nudged the bull's side, making him tumble onto his side in a flail of limbs.

Lucy snapped out of her terrified trance and immediately became defensively angers, jumping to her feet and running towards Taurus, stepping in front of the fallen animal.

"Hey! Leave Taurus alone, you jerk!" she growled at the beast, completely forgetting that it could end her life with one swipe of its claws. She glared at it in the eyes, finally taking note of its appearance.

The dragon was covered in pale red scales, almost pink, but slightly too dark, with a white underbelly. The green iris's held … amusement with its slitted pupils narrowing in on her, and over all, it was big. She wanted to say the size of an elephant, but she could tell by the stubby legs that it wasn't that tall, and reasoned that a _giant ass crocodile _suited the description better.

Lucy's eyes widen in surprise when the dragon merely closed its eyes and its body shook, puffs of air coming out of its nose. _It was __**laughing. **_

"What are you laughing at, you overgrown lizard?" she snarled. At this point, she didn't care if this creature could kill her. It had touched Taurus, and could have possibly hurt him, and she wasn't going to stand by and just _watch _as this … _salamander _bullied her bull. Her little insult stopped his laughter instantly (Lucy assuming that by the deep tone of the rumbles coming from his throat, he was male) and snapped his head up, glaring at her. He eased his head closer to her, obviously trying to intimidate the blonde, but instead of rearing back and away like any sane person would, she glared right back at him and leaned her own head towards his.

His head was about the size of her body from the waist up; Lucy took note of as she leaned over his snout to be inches away from his eyes. And they just stared at each other for what felt like minutes, but she was sure that it was only a few seconds. It was definitely a male. Not that she was an expert on dragons or anything, but the shape of his face and the bulkiness of his body just screamed _male. _And his eyes were just … so piercingly green as he stared into her own brown orbs. They both had lost the threatening vibe and were now just having a stare-down.

She couldn't explain it, but his eyes were just _entrancing. _Like a snakes. They had such depth to them and she couldn't help but think of them as pretty. Black speckled around his slit pupil and a pale gold speckled around his outer iris, really putting emphasis on the green. And they actually held emotion; and they were kind of confusing her. There was curiosity and wonder in his orbs, but also fascination and … that could actually be admiration, could it? What could it be admiring about her?

But the intense atmosphere was broken when a roar filled the air, not a dragon's but a lions. Lucy reared back her head, her butt bumping against Taurus who had finally managed to stand up again. She looked around the dragon and saw Leo charging for the field, his eyes on the red dragon in front of her. The dragon turned its head slowly, almost lazily, just staring as Leo ran down the path and was getting closer and closer to the field.

And then, all the dragons took off, the one in front of her causing a large gust of wind and knocking her back a few steps, Taurus having yet again been knocked off his feet and rolled a bit backwards. Leo finally made it, but it was too late, the dragons having lifted into the air. The lion skidded to a halt in front of Lucy, snarling up at the sky. Lucy looked up and saw that the herd was disappearing in the distance … except for the red one, who was hovering high above her, staring down at her with the still piercingly green eyes. It let out a roar then, a roar that she could feel vibrate through her body and caused shivers to rattle down her spine, before taking off after the rest of the herd.

Even after he had disappeared in the distance, she continued to stare in the direction, ignoring Leo's purrs and affectionate nuzzlings against her stomach, hips and chest. Even though she had only shared that moment with the dragon for only a few minutes, she felt a little sad that he was gone—which was absolute ludicrous! Lucy shook herself out of her daze and patted Leo and Taurus' heads, ordering them to follow after her to the barn and to get back into their stalls.

**This. Will. Continue. I promise. I thought this up a while ago and just remembered I wanted to write it down. :D To be continued!**


	11. The (Not so much) Replacement

**The (Not so much) Replacement**

"Ne, Natsu?" Lisanna asked the pink haired male, keeping her eye on the blonde female celestial wizard that had sat herself all the way across the room from the rest of her team—plus Lisanna—all by herself at a table.

"Wazzit, Lishama?" Natsu asked the white haired girl, his cheeks stuffed and puffing with food, his lips having trouble forming the words around the food.

"I was told that you and Lucy are close, is that true?" she asked with genuine curiosity. All throughout the few weeks that Lisanna had been back, she had been hearing tales of the blonde wizard and all the adventures she had gone on with Natsu and how the two had been practically joined at the hip. But she had never seen it for herself, yet. Whenever Lisanna came to the Guild, Lucy would apparently be out on solo missions or on a mission with Levy, or would be sitting at a table different from her best friend and teammates. So she wasn't entirely sure what to believe—what she's seeing or what she's heard.

"Oh yeah!" Natsu said with a large grin, wiping his lips after swallowing the large amounts of food in one go. "She, Happy and I made a team after I brought her here!"

"And she went on every mission with you?"

"Pretty much, yep! And whenever she tried to go by herself, we tagged along just for the heck of it. It's not like we had anything better to do." Natsu said, stuffing smaller portions of food in his mouth so he could continue to eat, but answer Lisanna.

"Then … why is it that she always turns down our offers to go on missions? I really want to get to know her, since apparently she's almost nothing like Edo-Lucy, but ever since I got back, she seems to avoid any sort of confrontation with me." Lisanna said, leaning cheek against her hand, looking over at the girl who was indulged in a novel. She had talked rather briefly with the girl after they got to meet, finding that Lucy was in fact a very sweet girl with a kind smile and good heart. Though Lisanna hadn't been the _closest _with the Lucy in Edolas, she knew that the dominatrix girl had been actually very kind at heart, but she kept that heart guarded with the tough exterior. So, in Lisanna's opinion, earthland Lucy was the inner Edo-Lucy brought to the surface. Sort of confusing, but Lisanna had always been good at keeping her thoughts in order.

"I … don't really know. She's never at her apartment when me and Happy go over either." The pink haired man said, his face turning slightly serious. The first time they had gone to visit her at her home since she hadn't been at the Guild that day, they had found the home vacant. They hadn't heard a thing from her until she showed up again two days later, beat and tired, but with a full reward from a mission she had taken on her own. Natsu and Happy had reigned hell down upon her for not telling them where she had went, and now, she at the least leaves them a note on her desk when she goes off, but never tells them face-to-face, which Natsu preferred she'd do.

In all honesty, he hadn't seen much of the girl. She spoke little to him and their hang out time had become nonexistent since they got back from Edolas. Team Natsu had begun bringing Lisanna on jobs to help her get back into the run of things, and she'd always be welcome with them if she didn't want to make another team. But whenever they confronted Lucy about the job, she would turn them down with a soft smile and go off on her own. It confused the hell out of everyone and concerned most of the members to the brink of tears.

"Yeah, I haven't seen much of her either." Gray added in from beside Natsu, opening one eye to read their expressions.

"The same for me." Erza tossed in, never removing her gaze from her plate of strawberry cake.

"Aye." Happy said simply, gnawing on a fish on top of Natsu's head while keeping his large black eyes on the girl. Happy was really worried about Lucy, she was beginning to look … worn down and thinner. She had large bags under her eyes and even now as she stared at her book, looked as if she was about to pass out on the table—then again, maybe she _was _sleeping but with her eyes opn, since she hadn't turn a page in the last twenty minutes. She looked thinner, and not the good kind; not the kind of I've-been-working-out-and-burning-the-fat-I-had-on -my-body, but the kind that says I-haven't-eaten-in-a-few-days-because-I've-been-so -busy-working. Everyone knew that Lucy would never under any circumstances skip out on meals without a real reason, she loved food, no matter how often she denied it.

Their table went silent as they all looked over at the girl, who they could all deduce was in fact sleeping sitting up. Their staring was disrupted when the unfortunate small blue haired script fairy walked through their line of vision.

"Levy!" the entire table called, making the slumbering blonde jolt slightly before slumping completely over her table into unconsciousness and nearly startling poor little Levy into a heart attack as they all rushed her. Her eyes searched her comrades' faces with frantic eyes before taking a deep breath to calm her racing heart.

"H-hi guys, what's up?" she asked a little nervously with all their intense stares.

"Do you know—" "Tell us what's going on—" "Why's Lucy acting so—" "Why's your hair blue—" "Stay out of this rookie—" "Don't just go interrupting people like that—" "Everyone shut it—" "Don't you tell me to shut—" "Can we get back to the main point—"

"What's wrong with Lucy?!" They all finally concluded, settling the confusion that had seeped into her usually organized mind from their constant talking at the same time.

"U-uh, nothing's wrong that I know of." Levy offered awkwardly, not sure what it was they meant. She had spoken recently with the girl, them having a very in depth talk about a recent novel they both had read. But she had left Lucy at her table to let the girl read and catch up on her sleep since she had been so busy on missions and having a slight case of insomnia because of her jittery nerves.

"We mean, do you know why Lucy has been 'avoiding' us as of late?" Erza asked, deciding she'd be the one to speak for them all. Levy blinked up at the red haired warrior with wide eyes before a small smile broke out on her face.

"She's not avoiding you guys, at least, not on purpose I think. She's just been really busy lately. She's been working on her novel, mostly because I'm pressuring her to hurry up. I mean, she left me at a cliffhanger in the last chapter! She can't do that and expect me to wait forever for her take her time and—"

"Levy!"

"—right, sorry. So she's been busy with her novel and she's been going out on a lot of missions because her rent got raised. I offered to help and all, but she said that she'd rather work by herself with the easier missions and that if she needed any help, she'd ask." Levy finished explaining, hoping that she had summed it up briefly enough.

"But we've been asking her to come on missions with us for weeks now, but she never wants to come with." Gray added. Levy turned her big eyes to his and her smile faltered a little, confusion yet understanding filling her brown orbs.

"Yeah, I noticed and asked her about it. She just said that she wanted to give you guys to catch up with Lisanna." Levy said with a slightly sad smile, knowing that Lucy distancing herself from her friends was hard, but was a temporary measure she wanted to make to let Lisanna get caught up with the people she had grown up with.

"Levy-san!" Jet and Droy called from the front doors, waiting for her to join them on the mission they had picked out for the three of them.

"Sorry guys, I've got to go. If you can, take Lu-chan home, she's exhausted and I think this is first time she's been able to sleep in the last couple days." Levy said with a wave before turning and running to meet her two partners, exiting out of the building with a smile.

Natsu turned his dark orbs towards his female partner, narrowing them in thought while the others conversed about what to do. So, that's what she had been doing. He'd have to talk to her, before Erza got her hands on the blonde and made the situation possibly worse, or solved it in a terrifying way.

"Happy and I will take her home." Natsu said, his eyes opening with a smile spreading across his face as his mind conjured up an idea. "Have a mission ready, too."

(V)V(V)V(V)

The next morning, Lucy woke up in her bed, not really remembering how she got home, but assumed that someone from the guild must have brought her in. She sat up with a groan, her back muscles aching from slouching over her table the day before and from the missions she had piled onto her schedule the past week. She finally finished them all and had the right amount of money to pay her rent, buy groceries and do a little shopping for a new outfit or two. So, in other words, her schedule was clear other than writing her novel and relaxing a little bit.

She sighed deeply, longing for the days to fly by faster. She had told herself that she would give the others a month with Lisanna without her nudging her way into their time. Lucy had heard stories of Lisanna and how the two of them were actually quite a bit alike. She wanted to get to know the girl, but she also wanted to give her time to adjust to coming back home after two years. Just another week, and then she would bring herself up and confront the girl, try and befriend her on a more personal level, and get back to doing missions with her friends—that is, if they would still have her. She had her concerns that once Lisanna came back, she would be pushed aside and forgotten about. But those ideas had been turned down over and over again every time they invited her on a mission with them.

She stood up from her bed, stretching her muscles in her legs and arms before setting about her morning routine. She did it a little slower than normal, not in a particular rush to get to the guild and wanted to savor the fact that she could actually take her time in the morning instead of rushing around and making sure she had everything she needed for wherever it was she had to go for her jobs. And because her morning muscles really wouldn't let her move any faster than she was.

When she was finished getting dressed, she walked down the stairs from her apartment and opened the door, preparing to step outside into the fresh air when she heard a faint noise. It sounded like a rustle, or possibly a whisper, but she couldn't really pinpoint what it was or where it was coming from.

And then she heard possibly one of the worst bird imitations that she ever had the displeasure of knowing before being thoroughly knocked off her feet and into a nearby bush.

"I got her down!" she heard an all too familiar voice yell before the words became an echo in a higher pitch when another form came crash landing on her face.

"Natsu! Happy! I told you, no tackling unless she shows resistance! I swear, I don't understand how you work with them so well, Lucy." A new female voice added in, yet did nothing to remove the weight of the two boys that was piled on top of Lucy's frame. The hot arms that had wrapped themselves around her upper body, pinning her arms to her sides with no room for escape, tightened slightly, cutting off even more of her air supply. Not to mention that Happy's furry stomach was pressed across her face, fur blocking her nose and mouth.

"MMMPHHHFFF—NFFMGG!" Lucy's muffled holler rang out, struggling to free her limbs to very little avail.

"C'mon, guys, let the poor girl breathe." Lisanna said with a small giggle. Happy backed away from her face, but only enough to let her breath, sitting a few inches away from her nose. She gulped in as much oxygen as she could greedily, thanks to Natsu finally easing his hold enough that her rips weren't being stabbed into her lungs. He sat up, still not entirely released her from his hold and sat her in his lap. "Sorry about that, Lucy. We came to talk you into going on a mission with us, but this idiot decided that Plan K was the only way to go." The white haired woman said with a small smile, squatting down in front of the two teammate and hugging her knees.

"P-plan K?"

"Well, technically, it's plan B, but Natsu wanted to call it K for 'Kidnap Lucy and make a run for it'."

Lucy threw a glare over her shoulder at the Dragon Slayer who gave an innocent grin before turning to look at Lisanna with a small smile.

"Uh, thanks for the offer, really. But I just got done with a whole ton of jobs and I sort of just wanted to relax for a few days—"

"Natsu! _PLAN K!" _Lisanna suddenly cut in, startling the blonde mage and kicking the cherry haired boy into action. Lucy squealed in surprise as she was suddenly thrown over Natsu's shoulder, the strongly muscled body part digging into her stomach.

"Let's go!" Natsu cheered gleefully.

"Aye!" Both Lisanna and Happy added in, all of them jumping into motion.

"B-but, wait guys! I—"

"We're not taking 'no' for an answer, Lucy!" Lisanna smile, running behind Natsu so the two girls' heads would be level. Lucy's wide brown eyes met the excited and amused blue orbs of Lisanna, and couldn't hold back the slight giggle. The two shared a smile, that is until Lucy broke it in favor of smacking Natsu on the head for putting his hand a little too low on her back.


	12. Boundaries

Boundaries

**This takes place, like, directly after the magic games and when everyone arrives back home. A little jealousy and touchy feelings.**

Natsu strutted down the street with the same confident walk he always had, his arms crossed behind his head as he stared up at the night sky. But despite the confident steps he was taking, most people that were still out on the streets of Magnolia were deducing that the Dragon Slayer had been drinking. They were correct. But he wasn't drunk, he really _couldn't _get drunk. His magic always burnt the alcohol out of his system before he became out of control, but that didn't mean that he didn't get a little loopy for the first couple minutes of drinking out of his fire whisky bottle.

When they got back from the Magic Games, their Guild being restored by the amazing townspeople of Magnolia, a large party had been thrown in celebration. Sure, the ball had been fun, but now that they were in the solitude of their own home, the walls of their Guild, they could party however they wanted without the royal guard on their tails about following rules inside the palace. And that party had been going on for at least a week, and still going strong. The other guilds, the ones they had befriended, from the Magic games had been invited over and they were partying along with the Fairies.

But Natsu didn't need alcohol to enjoy himself, sure, it was a nice way to boost his spirits higher than they already were, and it sent a nice warmth in his stomach, but it wasn't necessary. He had been drinking and eating nothing but fire whiskey and flaming chicken for the past five days, and he could use a break from all the dancing and fighting. And the one place he could actually find himself completely relaxing at was the small apartment of his best friend and partner, knowing that she'd have something in her kitchen that would appeal to him. Not to mention a place to sit down without worrying about having a chair accidentally smack into his face or spilling Cana's booze in an incident that involved chickens, guitars and a turkey boaster.

It's been a wild week.

Lucy had gone home earlier that day, having a slightly lower tolerance with alcohol and eccentric people than Natsu, so he knew that she was there. So he wasn't surprised to see the light of her bedroom on, but what _had _surprised him was the smell of another presence there in her apartment. A particular scent that he had grown accustom enough with to be able to identify who it belonged to.

_What was that dragon slayer doing at _his _Luce's apartment? _

Natsu narrowed his eyes suspiciously as he leapt up to the window, easily perching himself on the sill and peeking in through the glass. She wasn't in her bedroom, and the bathroom light wasn't on—plus, what would they be doing in the bathroom together—so they were either in the living room or the kitchen downstairs. Natsu pried the window open easily, Lucy never locking it—knowing that Natsu would just end up unintentionally breaking any locks on it when he wanted to get inside—and slinked into the room, closing it behind him silently. He could hear the voices now.

"I'm really sorry Sting-kun, but I'm really worn out from the party and I'm not really in the mood for company at the moment." He heard Lucy say, her calm, silky voice coming from down the steps. She _did _sound tired—but that should mean that she's irritable, why was she being so polite to _this _dragon slayer when she was so mean to him. She was politely asking Sting to leave, but she didn't even hesitate to try and physically kick _him _out? Natsu pouted, but then a smile grew on his face. In his mind, it only meant that she was more comfortable with showing her less attractive (though he found it to be rather intriguing and sorta adorable) personality show with him, while he could tell she was forcing herself to remain calm and formal with the white dragon slayer.

"I understand, Lucy-san, but I was just wondering if I could come in and take a rest. The walk to our hotel is really far, and I just wanted a place to rest my legs."

"But my apartment is farther from the Guild than your hotel, ya know." Lucy mumbled more to herself than the blonde haired man before sighing. "Well, I suppose for a few minutes."

Natsu decided now would be a good time to make himself known. So, he walloped down the stairs, tripped over his own foot and landed in an unceremonious heap at the foot of steps. Not exactly the grand opening he had had in mind, but it at least got their attention.

"Aaaand another Dragon Slayer in my house." Lucy sighed, pressing her palm against her forehead before standing straight with her hands on her hips. "Natsu, what are you doing here? I thought you would have stayed at the Guild at least until tomorrow."

"Trying to avoid Cana's wrath—you have any idea how many times we've made her spill her booze?" He chuckled, jumping back up to his feet and stretching his arms above his head.

"Why don't you go back to your _own _house?" she pouted at her friend, her attention completely diverted from the white dragon slayer that was standing silently behind her.

"Cause I'd be alone and I don't I have food." He said, strutting up to the blonde female and slinging an arm around her shoulders, leading her towards the kitchen and _away from the other dragon slayer. _

"Sting-kun, would you like, um, something to eat—or drink?" Lucy asked, sweat dropping as she managed to pull Natsu to a stop long enough to look back at the blonde haired male.

"Oh! No thank you, Lucy-san."

"You sure? Luce here makes a mean hot chocolate." Natsu said, looking over his shoulder also to give what Lucy saw as an innocent smile, but to Sting it was a feral warning grin.

"I'm sure, Natsu-san, I just came to—"

"Rest you legs, yeah, I can get that. Our guild sure knows how to party, eh?" this time, Natsu's grin was genuine, just thinking about his nakama put him in a better mood.

"I'm going to set up the tea kettle." Lucy said, stepping out from under Natsu's arm and towards the kitchen, deciding that she would need an energy boost if she was going to survive this visit conscious.

"Ewwww, tea? It's so blaaand. Hot chocolate!" Natsu whined, turning to face Lucy again with a begging face. "Choc-late, choc-late!" He chanted, pumping a fist in the air as if to hype Lucy up for the idea of the beverage.

Lucy sighed again, closing her eyes to try and block out the headache that was already beginning to form. Being shouted at and shouting right back at her friends to be able to be heard over the loud music that had been playing was taking its toll on her brain. Hot chocolate was good for an energy boost, but tea had a more soothing effect … hot chocolate it was, if just to keep Natsu content and not pester her about making it later.

Natsu '"Yosh"ed in triumph before turning back towards her living room, jumping over the back of her couch to lie down and making himself comfortable. Sting sat down on the chair on the other side of the coffee table, sitting back but trying not to make himself feel too comfortable, or to get used to the homey feeling that the small apartment gave off.

"So, you enjoyin' Magnolia?" Natsu asked, his onyx eyes completely focused on Sting. There was no more hostility in his essence, just mere curiosity, cautiousness and … friendliness.

"It's quite the town, Natsu-san. Everyone's really friendly here." Sting smiled back, happy to know that his idol didn't seem to harbor any hard feelings for him. He was just … curious about Lucy. She seemed like a very nice person and he felt a little guilty about what Minerva had done to her during the Games, he and most of the rest of his guild supporting the cowardly woman and laughing at the obviously kind girl's pain. And plus … she had a glow to her that attracted him to her. He knew he was trekking into dangerous territory, trying to get closer to the girl and possibly more, especially with how close she and Natsu were.

"Oh yeah, this is the place to be. Never a boring day around here."Natsu said, smiling up at the ceiling. "You have any idea where you're gonna settle down your new guild?" Natsu asked, not removing his stare from the ceiling, but it was obvious he was paying very close attention to the blonde man.

"Not yet, we're trying to find a place that everyone agrees on, but we haven't had much luck yet."

"Try Hargeon. Plenty of trouble down there and I'm positive they'd appreciate the security of a magic guild in their town." Natsu offered after a moment of thinking, his mind going back to the fact that he had met Lucy in the very town. It had been a little over a year, er, eight years(?), since he had taken her back to the guild, but it feels like it's been so much longer than that. They've all just been through so much in that small amount of time. It feels like he's almost known her his entire life, even though the very idea was ridiculous. They knew each other very well, but there were things about her that kept him guessing, and there were definitely things that she didn't know about him. He didn't share much about his past with anyone, but the little that he _had _shared … had been with her. But … he didn't really know much about her past, other than she had had an unhappy childhood thanks to her mother's death and her father cutting himself away from her—but everyone knew about that, since the Master had requested she share the reason Phantom was after her during that period of time. Other than that … he really didn't know much.

"… Natsu-san?" hearing his name brought him out of his thoughtful reverie, snapping his head back in surprise and looked over at Sting.

"Sorry, smelt the hot chocolate." Natsu said smoothly, coming up with the excuse on the spot—well, not entirely lying, since the smell of boiling chocolate was prominent in the air of the small apartment. It made the room smell even better, mixed in with Lucy's scent. Sure, chocolate mixed with peaches, vanilla and stardust would smell weird to any normal person, but Natsu tended to smell the better sides of things—unless it was Gray, then he purposely pointed out how he had the smell of a frozen/soggy banana peel.

"It _does _smell amazing in here."

Natsu glanced at the man out of the corner of his eye, half-mast in suspicion.

"What do ya smell?" Natsu asked, curious to see if she smelt any different to Sting than she did for Natsu. Sting seemed to take a moment, as if pondering over what was overwhelming his nose. The first thing he picked up on was Natsu's scent. It filled the room—no, the entire apartment, and was blended together with vanilla and peaches.

"Well, I definitely smell you—everywhere. And vanilla mixed with peaches. And of course the chocolate since she's making it now."

Natsu merely nodded. Good, cause that was exactly what Wendy and Gajeel had said when they named off what she smelt like. They couldn't pick up on the stardust like him—him already knowing what it was. It was her Magic.

It took Natsu a while to figure it out, why he couldn't ever really place the scent, but it was because it had just started off as this weak barely there smell, that progressively grew stronger and more noticeable. But apparently, no one else could pick up on it, other than him. He knew why, of course, but … he wasn't sure if he was ready to accept it yet. They were fine how they were now, they didn't need a drastic change like that yet … but he might have to move a little faster if this third generation Dragon Slayer was planning on sticking around.

"Hot chocolate's ready." Lucy said, breaking through Natsu's thoughts when she first entered the room. She carried a tray with three mugs on it, setting it down on the coffee table gently. "And Natsu, if you _must _put your feet on my couch, can you at least take off your shoes?" she pouted.

Natsu just grinned up at the girl, shifting himself into an upright position in one swift move, crossing his legs as he dropped his sandals onto the floor in front of him.

"This one's yours, Natsu." She said, picking up one of the mugs and holding it out to him. "I made it extra heated so you don't have to set my mugs on fire anymore."

"Ah, you know me well, Luce." He said with a laugh, inhaling the steam coming from the mug that was so thick, you couldn't even see through it.

"I accidentally made too much for two people, so I hope you don't mind that I poured you a mug, Sting-kun." Lucy said, turning to smile at the white dragon slayer with a fatigue-ridden expression. The poor girl looked like she was barely conscious.

"Thank you, Lucy-san!" Sting said, an exuberant smile spreading across his face as he accepted the cup from the girl. It wasn't very full, reaching a little over the halfway mark, but her story was proven true with the amount that was in her and Natsu's cups, filled almost to the rim. Even though hot chocolate wasn't his absolute favorite drink—since everyone else in their guild were atrocious cooks, he had tasted some pretty messed up beverages that couldn't even resemble what they were supposed to be—but it smelt too good to turn down.

Natsu had pretty much chugged his mug, the boiling chocolate the perfect temperature for him as it gargled in his tummy, satisfied with the flavor. He had been licking the inside of the cup, trying to get the left over residue of the chocolate powder when he noticed that Lucy was still standing, well, barely. She was swaying slightly on her feet, her eyes barely open as she stared down at the remaining mug on the tray.

"Why don't ya sit down, Lucy." He said, setting his mug down and shifted across the furniture to reach for the young celestial mage. He grabbed her hand and gently pulled her over to the couch, his touch jolting her from her semi-sleep slightly. The moment her rear hit the cushion, her eyes snapped shut, her mouth dropping open slightly as she sagged against Natsu. Natsu just chuckled as he wrapped an arm around her shoulder, pulling her into a more comfortable position but leaving her against his side. "Looks like she's out for the night."

"I'll take that as my cue to leave. It was nice talking with you, Natsu-san. And thank Lucy-san for her hospitality when she wakes up." Sting said with a smile, waving at the pink haired fire mage before turning and walking to the door.

Once the door shut behind him, Natsu's shoulders relaxed, not even realizing that they had been tensed almost the entire visit. He looked at the girl that was leaning against him, a small amount of drool starting to dribble out of the corner of her mouth. Oh, it would be fun to see the reaction on her face when he tells that _that. _

Picking up her untouched mug, he stuck his finger into the chocolate and heated it up to a temperature closer to one he liked and chugged that one, too. She obviously wouldn't be missing it, since it didn't seem like she would be waking up for _anything _for a while. Licking his lips to rid himself of the mustache the chocolate had made, he looked back down at Lucy and smiled. Shifting his own body so she'd fall into his lap, he caught her shoulders in one arm and brought the other one to cup the back of her knees. Heaving her up against his chest, he stood to his feet and started to make his way up the stairs he had fallen down. Lucy weighed more than she usually did, but he would just put the blame on the fact that Mira had been shoving food into everyone's mouths ever since they got back from the Games. Natsu was positive that he'd have to get a job or work out if he wanted to stay fit—even though any fat that he managed to build up was usually burnt away within seconds.

When they reached the bedroom, Natsu shifted the blonde girl to one arm, while using his semi-free hand to pull back the covers on her bed. When that was done, he plopped the girl onto the mattress and tugged the covers up over her as far as they could go—Lucy _really _knew how to tuck the corners into the mattress.

She curled up into a small ball, a content murmur slipping past her lips as she hugged the blanket around her. Natsu chuckled with a smirk as he walked over to the lamp she had lit on her desk, flicking it off with a single finger. The room was engulfed into a comforting darkness, the only sound being Lucy's soft snoring. Natsu shed his jacket, tossing it over the back of her desk chair, leaving him only in his puffy, Arabian pants and scaly scarf. Stretching his arms above his head, he walked towards the side of the bed that Lucy didn't inhabit and slid effortlessly under the covers.

He twisted onto his side so he was facing Lucy, a content smile growing on his face. He always loved her bed, how soft and comfortable it was, but it was her scent that made it so tempting to sleep in it. Her scent just put his mind at ease, helped his body relax and put him to sleep faster. With a quiet hum, he tossed his arm over her waist and tugged her closer to him, making sure to grab onto the corner of the pillow to pull along so he'd have somewhere to put his head.

Sinking deeper into the mattress, Natsu rested his head on the plush pillow, his forehead pressed gently against the back of Lucy's head as he gripped her tightly. He knew he'd have hell to pay tomorrow, but all he wanted was to slip into a deep sleep with the girl he might-have-more-than-platonic-feelings-for right beside him. Taking a deep breath through his nose, inhaling the scent in her hair, he felt his eyes drift close, his mind fuzzing over as his consciousness slipped away.

-()-

The next day at the Guild, Natsu and Gajeel sat at one of the booths, glaring at one another and tossing back insults when they were supposed to be having a conversation about the dragons showing up after the Games.

Lucy and Levy were seated at one of the smaller tables in the middle of the large room, chatting eccentrically about the novels that the two of them had missed out on when they had vanished on Tenrou Island. Levy was farther ahead in the series than Lucy was, not even needing the special glasses since she was naturally a fast reader. And the two females were now talking about the plots, and the latest characters that had been added into the story line—both of them agreeing that the prince was a giant jerk for just running into the castle and trying to dismember the dragon that had been guarding the treasure.

"Lucy-san! Levy-san!" they both heard, turning in their seats to face the doors of the Guild where Sting and Rogue stood. Though they obviously meant no harm to anyone in the Guild, both the girls couldn't help but tense the slightest bit.

"A-ah, hello Sting-kun, Rogue-san." Lucy waved awkwardly, Levy also waving slightly hesitantly as the two approached their table at an alarmingly speedy pace. They didn't mind the Dragon Slayers' company, but it's been two weeks since the big party had came to an end and the Saber Tooth Guild had yet to leave magnolia. And to be completely honest, the constant presence of the twin dragons was beginning to grate on the two bookworms' nerves. And it didn't help that their own dragons hadn't really been around as of late because the Master had been sending them on missions to help them coordinate better.

"Hey, shorty, I need you to get something for me." Gajeel's voice suddenly came from behind the small blue haired Fairy, making the poor girl jump.

"G-Gajeel! Uh, what is it?" she asked, turning slightly to face the towering black haired iron dragon.

"I'll show you, just c'mon. You're puniness will come in handy." He said, suddenly grabbing onto her tiny hand and tugging her off of the bench and away from the table. Lucy silently cursed Gajeel for taking her away, leaving her alone with the two slayers. She turned to look up at the two of them, Sting about to say something but was promptly cut off by none other than the fire dragon himself.

"Luuuucccyyy~" he sang, throwing his arm over her shoulders and hugging her to his side almost too tightly. "How 'bout we go get some ice cream? I'm in the mood for some." Natsu said with a wide grin towards the girl.

"A-actually …" the two best friends looked up at the blonde dragon slayer, finding him looking slightly hesitant at first, before the will ironed in his eyes. "I was about to ask Lucy-san out to some coffee." He said, deciding that he would have to make his intentions clear if he wanted things to start to get in motion.

There was a tense silence between them, Rogue having the sense to slowly back out of the group and possibly find a quite place to rest. The smile that had been present on Natsu's face dropped within a heartbeat, but was quickly put back up before anyone else could notice.

"Yo, Sting. Remember how I said we should fight again? Why not now, huh? We both obviously have some free time." He said with a feral smile, stepping away and in front of Lucy to stand before Sting, not at all intimidated with the fact that he was a bit taller by a few inches.

"Oh, uh, I guess—"

"Great! Let's go!"

"Natsu! Try not to destroy the city! They were nice enough to rebuild our guild for us!" Lucy called after the two boys—one of which was more or less being dragged by the back of the neck. Knowing that her words were mostly ignored, she turned back to face forward with a sigh. "I hope Natsu can contain himself a _little. _I'd rather we didn't have to deal with Guild difficulties before we go get ice cream." She smiled to herself slightly, before looking over to see Levy smacking Gajeel's arm with a burning red face.

**Gahhhhhh, again, liked how it started, had a vague idea how to end it, but it just didn't turn out how I really wanted it to. And honestly, I need to get some of these one shots out of my system so I can focus on Exceedingly Adorable without all these different story plots smacking around in my head.**


	13. Comparisons

Comparisons

**Okay…. So I just gotta get all these Lisanna stories out of my system. Just so you know, even though it's from her point of view, it's not really ****_about her. _**

Lisanna sat at one of the tables in the middle of the Guild, Gray and Elfman seated around her chatting about the missions that they had just recently finished. But she wasn't really focused too much on it, instead, she was observing her Guild Mates. She missed them all, so much. Being away from them had been hard while she was in Edolas, even if their physical dopplegangers were around her. And … it was definitely fun just too see how different everyone acted from their counterparts on Edolas.

The first she obviously noticed was her dear older siblings. Mira … surprising was exactly like her edo-version. She wasn't the same punk-rock beauty that she had left behind when she supposedly "died". Of course Mira had always had a small sweet side that was rarely shown, but it was definitely refreshing to see it more often. But that didn't mean that her devilish side didn't breach the surface every once in a while, amusedly.

Then of course there was Elfman, still the big softy at heart but too proud to show it past his manly exterior. She had missed his antics of trying to prove his masculinity, but that didn't mean that she hadn't enjoyed being able to stand up for the sensitive edo!Elfman. Not to mention it had taken some getting used to the sudden hair style change between the two. She constantly had the temptation to try and brush it down and make it cleaner than it appeared.

There were of course a few minor people that definitely caught her attention, like how Cana was still the heavy drinker that she remembered, possibly even worse. Juvia and Gray's case was completely entertaining, finding the Earth Juvia's attitude entirely surprising, but very amusing. The Juvia in Edolas had always thoroughly enjoyed the rain, so it wasn't _too _surprising that the earth version was a water mage—even though her edo counter part was actually terrified of swimming and big bodies of water. (**A.n. I'm just making this stuff up, you guys, feeling like it would more or less be accurate… don't hate me!**) Gray's stripping habit was still active and probably even worse than when she left.

And then … there was Natsu and Lucy. The two that were the most noticeably different. Just like Juvia, she could only imagine was the earth version of Lucy was like, and to say the least, she wasn't disappointed. But … it was the relationship between them that definitely caught her interest. _Exactly _like in Edolas, they were just so _loyal _to one another. She had seen it many times between them, the way that they were so willing to do anything for each other. Willing to do anything to protect one another. True, the Lucy here wasn't quite as physically strong as the one in Edolas, but she definitely had the same courage and determination. And honestly, the only difference between their relationship here from there, is that they weren't _together _on Earth.

But if you didn't know them personally, you would have guessed that they were a pair. They bicker and flirt with one another without their knowledge, they were always in touching range—that is if they _weren't _touching in the first place. Natsu always had his arm around her shoulders or around her waist, they always sat next to one another while in the Guild, their shoulders usually pressed together. Though two years ago, the sight would make her stomach twist uncomfortably with jealousy, she only felt adoration and frustration with the fact that they weren't together yet. Of course she still loved Natsu, but seeing their edo-versions together had prepared her for her return.

So in other words, she, Mira and Cana had a giant list of devious schemes to get the two of them together hiding in Mira's secret compartment. So far, four of their plans had failed to make them official, but it _had _brought them closer together. Sure, they hadn't kissed yet, but it was only a matter of time.

Because, even though they acted different from their Edolas counterparts, they were still the same people in side.


End file.
